Vampiric Link
by Skipper1313
Summary: Stitch has been approached by a stranger, who claims to be a vampire in need of help to save his people. However, in order to help, Stitch can only take one person with him, and they must leave everything they've known behind. Will they be able to?
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch. It is the property of Disney.

Ok, so I was finally able to pull together ideas for this: my second fan fiction story. My first one, Experiment 628: Shifter, has nothing to do with this story. In case you are wondering, there will be a sequel to that story called Rescues, which I will start shortly. Enjoy the new story!

This story takes place five months after Leroy and Stitch.

**Vampiric Link**

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Quite a bit had happened in the past few months following Hamsterviel's attack on the experiments. It made most of them realize just how short life was, and put things in action. The day after it happened, David proposed to Nani, and they had been married recently. So recently, that they were gone on their honeymoon. About two months after the attack, Angel and Stitch broke up. No one was sure why, but the rumor (from Nosy, nonetheless) was that Stitch had feelings for Lilo. But no one every listened to that rumor, as they trusted Stitch, who denied it emphatically. Two weeks after the breakup, Angel had caught the first shuttle she could, and was now on the BRB 9000 with Reuben. Stitch had moped for a few days after she left, but Lilo cheered him up: that and the fact that he and Angel sent emails once or twice a day. In the past month, Lilo and Stitch had been spending a lot more time together. Jumba claimed Stitch and Lilo were 'flirting' with each other, but Pleakly said that they 'weren't right for each other'. After the attack, Jumba had spent most of his time instructing the scientists how to deconstruct the Leroys, so they couldn't be used again. He had also done some slight reprogramming with Stitch, so that he could actually speak proper English. Although, Stitch still preferred to throw in a few words in his native language. After that, he spent most of his time on a new 'project' that he never talked about. Pleakly had managed to land a job at the local newspaper under the gossip section. He and Nosy missed nothing on the island, but were careful to keep the reports on human and not experiment behavior. Myrtle had finally accepted the fact that Gigi was an alien, and that Lilo wasn't that weird after all. She had lately started inviting Lilo over to play with her and her posse. Everything seemed good at the moment, especially for Lilo and Stitch, who were down on the beach together, watching the sunset.

"Isn't this the most beautiful thing you've ever seen Stitch?" Lilo asked.

Stitch shook his head. "Naga. You most beautiful." He said as he put his arm around her. Lilo blushed at what Stitch had said, but didn't know what to say. She decided not to say anything at all and to just sit there with him. As they continued watching the sunset, she decided that they had been too quiet for a while.

"So Stitch, how's Angel doing?" She asked. "I know you email her everyday."

At the mention of Angel, Stitch got annoyed and merely said, "She's fine." Lilo could tell that there was more to it, and wondered if she should push the matter. She decided she should help Stitch cheer up, so she figured that he needed to get off whatever was bothering him.

"Stitch, what did Angel say that has you so upset?" Lilo asked. Stitch groaned: this was the last thing he wanted to talk about. However, he also knew that Lilo wouldn't leave him alone until she got an answer, so he decided to be truthful.

"Well, you know that she and Reuben started dating, right?" He asked. Lilo nodded, remembering when Stitch had told her almost a month ago. "Well, she keeps teasing me that I'm not 'in a relationship'." Lilo laughed.

"Is that it? Stitch, it isn't like to be jealous over words."

Stitch sighed, and extended his extra arms. One of them was holding a folded photograph, and he handed it to Lilo. "She sent me this earlier today. Said that I needed to 'get a move on'." Lilo unfolded it, and saw it was a picture of Angel and Reuben kissing.

"Stitch, you can't let this get to you. It's only a kiss." Lilo said. However, when she saw the look on Stitch's face, she grew slightly worried. "Stitch, you aren't planning revenge, are you?" She asked.

Stitch shrugged. "How do you get back at something like this? I sure don't know." Lilo didn't know either. They continued watching the sunset, when about ten minutes later, it hit Lilo what they could do.

"Stitch, I have an idea." She said. Stitch looked at her, listening intently. "I have my camera with me. How about we take a picture of us kissing, and you can send it to Angel. I'm sure you can edit it to make it look older then it is, and you can tell Angel that she's taking long enough to pick up Reuben."

Stitch smiled at the idea. "It's perfect! She'll get so jealous, and she won't have a way of getting back at us!" He said happily. Lilo pulled out the camera and looked at it.

"Perfect! It has one picture left. And Nani won't look at the pictures once they get developed, because she thinks my pictures are weird." Lilo said. She looked at Stitch and got slightly worried. "So, how do we do this?" She asked.

Stitch took the camera and held it out at arms length. Judging the direction of the camera, he got the flash warmed up. "Ready." He said. They both looked at each other uncertainly for several moments, both nervous and afraid of what they were going to do, and neither wanting to make the first move. Finally, fed up with waiting on revenge, Stitch pulled Lilo close to him, and planted his lips on hers. As they touched, he felt Lilo go slightly stiff. Afraid that he had hurt her, he was about to pull away when she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer to her. Forgetting completely about the camera, he dropped it and put his other three arms around Lilo, neither wanting that moment to stop. Stop it did, however, when they saw a flash from a camera not far away. Looking up, they saw Nosy with his brand new $200 digital camera. Stitch growled as Nosy came over.

"I think I'll call it Young Love. You know, I decided that the experiments needed their own form of news, so now I can report anything I want to now. And that picture is going to make the front page of the paper. I bet everyone will want to know that you two are going out." He said. Stitch looked at him angrily; ready to take the camera, when an idea hit him. Smiling, he called Nosy over and put his arm around him.

"I wonder, would you be willing to send the paper out to Reuben when it's done? I bet he'll want to know what's going on here." Stitch said. Nosy was surprised that Stitch was acting to nice to him; he had figured Stitch would have torn him apart. However, he knew there was something here that had Stitch angry, and he didn't press him.

"I sure could. I could use Jumba's ship to send it over." He said. Stitch thanked him, and then he and Lilo walked towards the city.

"Stitch, I'm surprised you didn't break that camera." Lilo said.

Stitch smiled. "Wait until Angel sees that story, though." He said. Lilo smiled.

"Yeah, she'll freak out. So, what do you want to do now?" She asked. Stitch thought for a moment.

"Let's go out for food." He said.

"Where? With what money?" Lilo asked. In answer, Stitch pulled out a wad of money he carried on him. "Stitch, where'd you get that?" Lilo asked, completely surprised.

"I've been doing work here and there around the island. Now, do you want to eat?" He asked again.

"Where?"

Stitch shook his head. "That's going to be a surprise." He said. He offered Lilo his arm, and she took it, giggling. They headed around town and finally came outside of a restaurant. Lilo looked up at it.

"Hey, isn't this the place that Frenchfry owns?" Lilo asked. Stitch nodded. Frenchfry had originally had a much smaller place, but business had boomed and he had been able to build himself a huge restaurant with the help of some of the other experiments. They walked in and saw Frenchfry seating people. He came back and saw them.

"Hey guys, how are you doing?" He said. Jumba had programmed him to also speak English, as most people didn't speak French on the island.

"Were fine, but I thought you were cook?" Stitch said. Frenchfry nodded.

"I'm a little short on help right now. Hamerface came down with the flu, something rare for us, and so he's out sick. So, table for two?" He asked.

"Could we be somewhere a little more… private?" Stitch asked, blushing slightly.

Frenchfry nodded. "I was going to anyway. Unless you enjoy being spied on." As he finished, Lilo and Stitch glanced back and saw Nosy listening to them and writing in his notebook. They decided to ignore him, and Frenchfry led them to a small table in the back behind the kitchen. It was well decorated and the lights were low. Frenchfry gave them their menus and smiled. "He won't hear you back here. I hope you have a good evening. I'll be back to take your order in a few minutes." Giving a slight bow, he ran back out.

"Good thing he has super speed." Stitch said. "Otherwise, he would be in real trouble, taking care of seating, us, and cooking." They looked at the menu for a few minutes. Lilo decided to get a steak, something she usually didn't eat. Stitch took longer, as he was trying to find something he liked that wouldn't make too much of a mess. He finally decided to have the Turkey Special. He had been leaning towards the fish, but remembered that Lilo still fed Pudge once a week, and decided it wouldn't be the best. They sat there talking, and Frenchfry showed up a minute later and took their order. Within minutes, they were digging in to a delicious meal. Stitch kept surveying the room and outside with his hearing and vision, checking for signs of Nosy. Every time he checked, he found no one around. Quite content, they finished their meals. They were looking at desserts, when Frenchfry came back.

"Whew, at least people have stopped coming. I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight. So, anything else I can get you?" He asked.

Lilo smiled. "How about a pair of ice creams, and also a pair of fortune cookies." She said. Frenchfry jotted it down, and ran out.

"Lilo, why fortune cookies?" Stitch asked.

Lilo shrugged. "I've always believed that they hold the truth, in one way or another. Besides, they always sound kind of funny." She said. Frenchfry came back a moment later and delivered the desserts. They ate the ice cream in silence, and then they opened their fortune cookies. Stitch read his first.

"You will be confronted with a difficult proposition. One choice is right, and negotiating will let you take your one with you." Stitch looked at it. "What the heck does that mean?" He asked, completely confused. "Decisions and choices and negotiating, doesn't make sense to me."

"Well, let me read mine." Lilo said. She opened hers and read it aloud. "The ultimate choice of family or love will soon confront you. Your choice will hold more weight then you realize." She laughed. "You're right, these make no sense." She stuffed hers in her pocket, and then she grabbed Stitch's and shoved it in her other pocket. "I always carry them around for a few days, just to see." Stitch got the check, and refused to let Lilo pay for any of it.

"But Stitch, this is going to cost you a ton!" Lilo argued. To subdue her fear, he showed her the check. "Wow, look at that discount. But why?" She asked. As if on cue, Frenchfry showed up.

"That's easy to answer. Lilo, you turned us all good, no one will forget that. Stitch, you saved us all from Hamsterviel. All the experiments worship you two like gods. Besides, we could have Stitch eat here to his hearts content everyday, and we'd still be gaining quite a bit of cash." He said. Stitch paid, and then they got up. When Frenchfry had his back turned, Stitch left a generous tip on the table. They thanked Frenchfry for his hospitality and kindness, and left for home. As they drew near the house, they saw that Nani and David weren't home.

"Probably on a date." Lilo said. Jumba's voice rang out from the ship.

"626, is needing you for moment." Jumba called. Stitch groaned, and started to head in that direction, when Lilo grabbed his arm. He turned around, and saw in her face what she wanted. Pulling her close, their lips met in a deep kiss. Stitch's ears stood straight up, and time seemed to stop. However, they were brought back to reality when Jumba called out again. Parting, Stitch told Lilo that he'd be back soon. He ran off to the ship and met Jumba.

"626, is needing help with these calculations. You is doing it faster then I can." He said. And sure enough, within a few seconds, Stitch had it all figured out. "Thank you 626. Oh, and before you go, Nosy dropped by. Says you and little girl are having relationship. Is this true?" Stitch blushed deeply, trying to find an answer that wasn't a lie, yet wasn't the truth.

"Nosy… Nosy exaggerates. Lilo and I watched the sunset together." Stitch said. Jumba nodded, and Stitch knew he was dismissed. Jumba heard him leave the ship, and finished what he was working on.

"I knew it would be working. However, if little girl is finding out, am in trouble. If bigger girl or council woman finds out, and in even bigger trouble." He said to himself. He looked around for a place to hide it, when Lilo and Nosy walked in talking. Hiding the vial behind his back he greeted them. "Good evening. How is you two doing?" He said in a fake-innocent voice. Unfortunately, both of them caught on.

"Jumba, what are you doing? And what are you hiding?" Lilo asked.

"Is nothing." Jumba replied, starting to sweat.

"He's lying. I've seen enough people do it to know." Nosy said. "Spill the beans Jumba, or my newspaper might 'accidentally' make a screw up and report it's something illegal." He said. Sighing, Jumba brought the vial from behind his back. Lilo was horrified.

"You were going to create another experiment? After what happened last time?" She yelled, referring to the incident with 627. Jumba shook his head.

"Is not another experiment. Is for research, that is all." He said.

Lilo glared at him. "What does it do then?"

"Changes person at molecular level." He replied.

Lilo didn't know exactly what it meant, but knew it was bad. "Jumba, lock it up."

"I is not intending to use it." He said defensively. However, he knew Lilo wouldn't back down. "I was seeing if it could be done. Have nothing better to do."

"I don't care. I've known you for a while Jumba, and I know you intend to use that at some point. I want it locked up. Otherwise, I'll tell Nani." Lilo said. Jumba sighed and put the vial in a safe.

"Assuming you want to set password?" Jumba asked as he closed the vault. Lilo nodded, and proceeded to enter a ten-digit code. The safe beeped, and the lock sealed. "Is little girl happy now?" Jumba said, rather upset. Lilo nodded, and turned and left Nosy and Jumba to talk. When she got outside, she saw Stitch waiting for her. They walked back to the house together holding hands, and went straight up to Lilo's room. Stitch took a peek on Pleakly, and saw that he was too distracted with the opera on TV to notice a bomb going off. He went back and he and Lilo started talking.

"So, how jealous is Angel going to get?" Lilo asked.

Stitch shrugged. "I'm not sure. More then likely, she'll try and figure out a way to top it. But it doesn't matter now." He glanced at the clock and saw that it was getting quite late. "We'd better go to bed. Nani and David will be back soon, and she'll expect us in bed."

"Stitch, can I have something before bed?" Lilo asked. Stitch nodded. She pulled him close, and their lips touched. Lilo had only wanted it to take a moment, but she now felt that she would never let go. Stitch wrapped his arms around her, and they pulled together, the kiss getting deeper. They stood there for ten minutes before the sound of the front door snapped them back to the present. They pulled apart, smiled at each other, and jumped into their beds. Stitch quickly turned off the light, and they pretended to be asleep. When Nani came up, she saw that they were in bed and decided to leave them alone. After a few minutes, Lilo and Stitch finally drifted off to sleep.

**Midnight**

Stitch woke up to a slight knocking on his window. At first he dismissed it as a dream, but it persisted. Looking out, he nearly yelled in surprise as he saw a complete stranger in the window. However, something told him to go and talk to him. He rode the lift downstairs, and walked out the front door, careful not to wake anyone. When he got out, the stranger motioned him, and they walked down the path a bit. When they finally stopped, the stranger turned to Stitch.

"My name is Letho. I am a member of the WCV, and we need your help, 626."

Please review and tell me what you think. Don't worry: the next chapter will be more interesting.


	2. Explanations

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Well, here is the next chapter. I hope you find this chapter more interesting then the last one. I have also decided that I will try and post chapters every Saturday, giving a week in between. If I run into a lot of things to do, I will keep it at every other Saturday, but never later then every other week, unless something really serious is going on.

Chapter 2: Explanations

Hundreds of questions ran through Stitch's mind at this statement, but before he could voice any of them, Letho held up his hand. "Now, I know you have many questions for me, but first, let me explain a little better." He took a deep breath and sat down on the ground; Stitch sat across from him, his back against a tree.

"Now, where to begin." He thought for a minute. "I won't go too deep, as we don't have a lot of time right now: I have somewhere I have to go. I guess the best place would be to start would be with my organization. I belong to the WCV. I know you may not believe this, but that stands for the World Council of Vampires." Stitch's mouth dropped open, and many more questions came into his head. "Now, we have an issue: the best way to put this would be to tell you a… a basic rundown of our history that has to do with this situation. See, there are several groups of vampires, but the most basic are vampires and vampeers. Now, as you have probably heard from all those movies, yes, we do drink blood. However, we don't kill the victim; at least the vampires don't. See, we live around not being discovered; bodies drained of blood might get some people to accidentally find us. Now, the vampeers don't see it like that: they drink their victim dry. We have constantly been at war with each other, but the fighting has died out in the past decade. However, we received disturbing news from one of our… informants, that the vampeers were planning something against our home, the Vampiric Caverns: a vast underground network of tunnels and caves. Before we could learn more, he was caught and killed. We have searched for clues, but to no avail. We decided that we would need outside help. We sent vampires to every corner of the earth looking for a person or persons who could help us; I was sent here. When I first arrived, I admit I didn't think I would find anything here. However, as I searched, I found you and the girl… Lilo, isn't it? Anyway, I decided to follow you, and to my amazement, I found that you weren't a dog, as I first had thought, but an alien. I decided to wait, and when I got a chance, I took a peak at the ship and the computer file on you. The more I read, the more I was amazed by your ability. This morning, before I went to sleep, I decided I would contact you tonight." He gave the Stitch a minute to take everything in. "There is much more, but that is what's important, in a nutshell. We need your help."

"So, you're a vampire? You drink blood and sleep in coffins?" Stitch asked, deciding to voice his questions one at a time.

"Yes, I am a vampire, and yes, we do drink blood, but only enough to sustain us. However, we prefer to sleep in beds rather then coffins. I assume you want to hear everything else about us." Stitch nodded. "You'll have to know this anyway before you can make your decision.' He said. This caused Stitch to become confused.

"What do you mean?" Stitch asked.

Letho sighed. "I can explain in a minute. Contrary to what you see in movies, our powers are different. For example, we can be killed by normal means, not just a stake in the heart, and of course holy water does nothing to us, as we aren't unholy."

"But, where do the rumors come from?" Stitch interrupted.

Letho smiled. "Mostly spread by vampires to protect us. That way when the humans to find us, they don't kill us with ease. It's much easier to avoid a human who's trying to jab a stick into your heart then if they're trying to shoot you with a fifty caliber. And it's always amusing to watch someone splash water on you and freak out when it doesn't work. We can't turn into bats or wolves, either. However, we do have amazing speed and agility. We do have an aversion for sunlight though, and fire does harm us more then normal humans. We could sleep in coffins if we wanted, but we personally prefer nice, fluffy beds. Other then that, we're human. Oh yeah, we also live a lot longer, and we all have black hair."

Stitch decided to ask the biggest question on his mind: "What does all this have to do with me, though?"

"I was wondering when you would ask that." Letho said. "What we want is your help in uncovering the plot against our home. It could come in many forms, and your designing is perfect for all of them. However, they are limited in what they can do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when the vampires first went to war with the vampeers over a millennia ago, the best we could fight with were swords and other 'medieval' weaponry. Once they came out with guns and bombs and such, both sides made an oath to use nothing other then medieval weaponry in the war: modern weaponry would take away the honor and glory of fighting. However, we have received a report, slightly unreliable though, that there is a small group of them that may be going against this oath."

"Then why don't you break it too?" Stitch asked.

"There is some ancient magic involved in this. The magic line has… thinned out over the many years, but the old power still holds strong: anyone who breaks this oath is instantly destroyed. However, the weapon has to be used, so they could use any sort of weapon, and they won't die until someone is killed by it. A very large flaw, if I do say so myself, and at some point it will undoubtedly be exploited. Legend speaks of one who the line magic courses through will come and close this flaw, but that has not yet happened. The vampires swore never to use such things, even when the flaw was discovered a decade ago. However, we believe that the vampeers, once they find it, will use it to their full extent."

Stitch thought it all over for several long minutes, before settling on the question that mattered most. "What would I have to give up to save your people?"

"I knew that question would come sooner or later." Letho said. "Unfortunately, you would have to give up just about everything. In order to get into the Vampire Caverns, you have to be a vampire, meaning I would have to blood you. Once blooded, there is no going back. No vampire has ever returned home for more then a few days: the 'symptoms' of being a vampire show greatly in contrast to normal family life. You would have to leave everyone and everything behind here. If they ever found out you were a vampire, many things could happen: If they love you, they will simply shun you as being a 'freak of nature'. However, if they hate you, they will call you a monster and attempt to kill you. That is why vampires rarely return home: it can tear a family apart. When our people were saved, you would become a hero amongst our people, and be greatly revered. You would live comfortably for the rest of your life. Some, though, find leaving their families too difficult after some time, especially if they watch them all pass away. You see, those with vampire blood live much longer then normal humans. The average life span, not including deaths in war, is about a millennium. The oldest vampire ever was almost two millennia old. Your life span would vary greatly, as you are designed to practically live forever. Some see this as the greatest thing, until they find themselves with no family, and want to be with them: then long life seems like a curse." He gave Stitch a moment to take it in. "In the end, this is your choice: you can save my people, and become our greatest hero while making hard sacrifices. I know, I have watched you long enough to know how much you love this place and your family. Your other choice is to live here, and we can try figuring it out ourselves. You would never know if we succeeded or failed, until the vampeers took control of humans. I tell you now that no one will think less of you if you decide to remain here, where you are happy." Having finished, he sat quietly and waited for Stitch's response.

"When do you need an answer?" Stitch asked.

"As soon as possible." Stitch groaned and got his brain racking. He went through the data, analyzed it, and tried finding the best course of action. He wanted to save these people, but Lilo needed him here. He thought back to when he had left her for the BRB 9000: she had been heart broken. What would happen if it appeared he had run away? _She'll probably think I hate her and wanted to get away_. Stitch thought sadly. After an hour of thinking, he finally decided on a course of action.

"I'll come on one condition: I want to take my family with me." Stitch said.

"That is out of the question! The council will never accept it." Letho said.

"But… I don't want to lose all of them!" Stitch said sadly, tears coming to his eyes.

Letho groaned. "I guess you could take _one_ alone with us. Choose whom you wish, but remember: in the end, the choice is theirs. You cannot force this upon someone. I will be back tomorrow; meet here at midnight, if the person so wishes to come. If you change your mind about going, leave a note here saying so: no one will think less of you. I wish I could give you more time, but our time is running out at the moment." Letho stood up and walked away. Stitch was too lost in thought to realize until he was out of sight. Grumbling, Stitch walked back home. He knew who he wanted to take, but would they come? She had a family here, and what if she didn't want to leave it? Glancing up at the sky, Stitch figured it was around 2 in the morning. _It's too early to think_. Stitch thought, stifling a yawn. Climbing up the house, he crawled up to the window, opened it, and then crawled inside. He was about to lie down when he realized the window was still open. He crawled back over and shut it: it closed with a slight bang. Spinning around, he sighed with relief as Lilo simply rolled over in her sleep. Stitch looked at her and groaned. _She's too happy here to leave with me_. He thought. He went over to her bed and kissed her on the cheek.

"We have a lot to talk about tomorrow, Lilo." He said quietly. He went and crawled into his bed, gave Lilo one last look, and went to sleep.

Somewhere across the island, Letho stood on the beach, watching the waves. He had had a phone call to make, and was now awaiting a response. He watched the moon's reflection wave on the shimmering water. "I never get to do anything like this anymore." He said quietly to himself. A vibration at his waist made him take his eyes off the scene and glance at the caller: his boss. He flipped open the phone and answered. "Letho. Hello Seph. He has agreed to come, but there is a slight conflict. Hah! I wish it were a minor problem; he wants to take someone with him. Look, you told me to get him to come, and this is the only way he agreed! Look, she might not even want to go! She has a happy life and… What? I don't care what Xem thinks about this! Have him go back to his little world of computers. Fine, I will try and get rid of her. Of course I know who he's going to ask to go! I've watched him for almost a week! He's going to bring the little girl; I think her name is Lilo. Fine, I will do what I can, but what if she still wishes to come? Are you crazy!? She's only eleven! She can't become a vampire! I know my orders, but…" He looked down at his phone, and sighed. "Why does he always hang up before I finish?" He said, closing the phone and putting it away. He looked back out at the sea, ran his hand through his short black hair. "Why do I have to get all the hard jobs?" He complained to himself. He had to admit, though, that this girl had done some amazing things in her life: and she was only twelve years old. Even some of the oldest vampires hadn't accomplished as much in their centuries of life.

"She won't come." He said out loud. However, he knew that she probably would. He had watched them that afternoon on the beach and knew that they had grown very close over the years. He groaned at the thought of her coming along: he knew that it would complicate things. But without her, Stitch would refuse to come, and without him they were more then likely doomed. He pulled out his phone again and dialed another number. After several rings, someone answered.

"Letho? Since when did you need my help?"

Letho smiled. Fiona always had a knack for knowing the reasons for visits and calls. "You know, some day you're going to freak someone out when you do that."

Fiona laughed. "Eventually. So, whom do you need to disappear? It's been… what, three centuries since you had an assistant?"

"Three and a half, but who's counting? With any luck, we might not need it. You see, Stitch won't come unless I at least offer to turn her too. However, if you look at her specs, you'll see that it's doubtful that she'll decline to go with him, especially with what's been going between them lately. Give me a minute." Pressing several buttons on his phone, it beeped to tell him the transfer was complete. "You got it, right?"

"Yeah, since I had to teach you how to use that thing I'd better get it." They were silent for a moment. "You're right, this is very interesting. She is quite unique. I believe that, given time, she'll be a great addition to our side. I'll have you a new identity by tomorrow. So, how is Hawaii? I haven't been there for half a century."

Letho shrugged even though she couldn't see him. "Well, I'm on Kauai right now, and it's quite nice. With help from these genetic creations I have been studying, it is the cleanest place on earth. The waves are always big and great for surfing, and land is constantly being added. You know, when I get too old to do much in a few centuries, I might just finish my last decades down here. It's like paradise. And with so many tourists coming all the time, I really wouldn't seem out of place."

"Always thinking of retirement. What happens if you get killed in the war? All your cockamamie plans for retirement will go out the window." Fiona said, keys clicking in the background. "Then again, you have over a dozen different plans, so who knows. Are you getting back soon?"

"Not sure." Letho replied. "Whether the girl comes or not, I am going to have to wait around until after the Period, and then bring them over. I just have to make sure that they understand everything. So probably only a week or two."

"What happens when they look for the girl? You going to get your CIA friend to help you out?" Fiona asked.

"Not this time. Time is of the essence, and explaining and convincing him to cover up for her would be too much trouble and take more time then we have. We'll have to keep him in the dark; at least for now."

"Either you tell him now, or not at all. You know what happened last time when you lied to him and then told him the truth, right?"

Letho nodded. "I still have the scar." He said, unconsciously running his hand over his face, where said scar ran from just over his left eye, down across his face, ending just to the right of his chin. "Fine, he won't ever know; at least, not from me. The last thing I want is another scar."

Fiona laughed. "But isn't three a crowd? It could join the other one you got from Seph. Way back when…"

"Stop." Letho ordered savagely. "I am no longer that person. I never want to hear about it again."

"Ok." Fiona said shakily. "I'm sorry, it just… slipped out. I know how you feel about it." They sat in silence for several minutes, the only sound coming from the clicking keyboard keys. "So, is that it?" She asked finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, thanks for listening to my problems." Letho said, now calmed down.

"I always do." Said Fiona. "And I always will, as long as I am around. Bye." Letho heard the line disconnect, and then put away his phone. He looked up at the sky and sighed heavily.

"Why does fate play these games with the small and weak?" He asked aloud. "Why can't it play with the strong?" The words of his old mentor came back to him.

"Great strength does not always come from the large, the old, and those of power. Strength comes from many places, especially from those pure of heart."


	3. Lilo's Choice

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch

Well, here is the third chapter. Please read and review.

Chapter 3: Lilo's Choice

Stitch woke up and stretched, the memory of the night before still weighing heavily on his mind. _She has no reason to go with me_. He thought. _Still though, I want to ask her to come with me. I have to make sure that, even if she says no, that I'm not leaving her because I hate her_. He decided to stop his inner war and go eat breakfast. When he walked in the kitchen, he glanced at the stove clock and saw it was nine o'clock. He yawned again, and decided only to have a cup of coffee. However, as usual, he had five before he was satisfied. Now awake, he walked into the next room and saw Lilo watching TV.

"Hey Stitch." She said, scooting over so he could have some room. "I guess you really needed to sleep." He sat down next to her. _When should I tell her? Not now, because I'm still kind of tired, and I'll just mix things up. But I have to give her time to think_. Stitch thought to himself. _I'll tell her right after lunch, then. But will she believe me? And if she does, will she come_? He decided to worry about those questions later, and watched some TV with Lilo. With Nani gone on her honeymoon, Jumba in his ship, and Pleakly preoccupied with cleaning his room, they could do whatever they wanted. As they watched the movie, Lilo leaned her head on Stitch's shoulder, while he ran his hand through her hair. Lilo put her arms around Stitch, and he felt himself blushing. She kissed him on the cheek, causing him to purr. Lilo laughed. "I've never heard you do that before." She said. "It sounds really nice."

Stitch smiled. "Too bad you don't purr. That would be funny to hear." They snuggled close together and watched the rest of the movie in silence, letting the music of The King flow over them. The movie finished just after eleven o'clock, and they decided to have an early lunch. Stitch started to get worried, as he knew that the time approached when he would have to tell Lilo. Lilo grabbed a sandwich for lunch, and Stitch decided not to eat; partly because of his nervousness, and also because he had had breakfast less then two hours ago. While she ate, he decided to go hang out in the room he and Lilo shared. He decided to pull out an atlas, one of Jumba's additions to their book collection. Since he didn't know where the vampires lived at yet, he decided to look around and try and guess. From what he knew, it was large, underground, and he assumed it would need to have many different exits. _If that's true, it's either somewhere in Asia, or maybe North America_. He thought. Half an hour later, he was no closer to figuring it out. He heard the lift, and turned to see Lilo coming up.

"I was wondering where you went." She said. Stitch sighed and put the book away.

"Lilo, there's something really important that I need to tell you about." He said. Lilo motioned to the bottom bunk, Stitch's bed, and they both sat on it. For the next hour, Stitch retold the events of the previous night. He told her everything, not leaving out a single detail of what he had been told. When he finished, Lilo said nothing. They sat in silence for ten minutes. Lilo turned to Stitch and looked him in the eye. Stitch stared back, and Lilo turned away.

"I guess you're telling the truth." She said slowly. "I know you well enough now to tell when you're lying." She fell silent, and Stitch decided to let her think. She spoke again a few minutes later. "Stitch, just tell me one thing: if I refuse, are you still going to go?"

Stitch gulped. He hadn't really answered this question himself. "Well… um… Stitch not really sure." Lilo looked aghast.

"Stitch, how can you not go?" She exclaimed. "If you didn't, a lot of people would die! What would make you want to stay?"

Stitch knew that he needed to tell the truth at her question. "Because… because Stitch would want to be with Lilo. Stitch… Stitch… likes Lilo… a lot." He stuttered. Lilo smiled and hugged Stitch.

"You couldn't have said anything nicer Stitch." They hugged for several minutes before pulling apart. "How long do I have?" She asked.

Stitch's ears drooped. "You have until tonight. If you want, you can come along and ask questions before you decide, but it has to be tonight."

Lilo smiled. "No rush, right?" They both laughed.

"I won't be surprised if you don't want to go." Stitch continued. "You would have to leave everything behind; everything you love."

Lilo smiled. "But if I didn't go, the one thing I love most would be gone from my life." She said sadly. Stitch looked at Lilo.

"Lilo love Stitch?"

Lilo nodded. "Either way, whether I go or not, you deserve to know how I really feel. After all, you told me how you really feel." She said.

Stitch laughed nervously. "Well… um… maybe Stitch likes… likes Lilo a little more then… then I admitted." Lilo's smile widened.

"Just say how you feel Stitch. I know you want to." She said coaxingly.

Stitch gulped. _Better now then never, if she doesn't come_. Stitch thought. "Stitch loves Lilo too." Lilo threw herself into his arms and gently stroked his back.

Thanks Stitch." She said. She pulled herself back a bit, and their noses were inches from each other. Stitch looked in Lilo's eyes, and realized the amount of love she truly held for him. He had to urge to kiss her again, like yesterday, but Lilo beat him to it; she put her arms around his neck, pulled him up to her, and kissed him on the lips. Whether they were like that for five minutes or five hours, Stitch didn't care. All that mattered was he and Lilo were together, sharing that moment with each other. They finally broke apart, and Lilo was crying.

"Lilo ok?" Stitch asked.

She nodded. "Can you leave me alone now Stitch? I need to do some serious thinking." Stitch nodded, realizing that he needed to respect her privacy of thoughts. He took the lift down and deactivated it, so no one would bother her. _This is going to be a long afternoon_. He thought. He went to the couch and sat down. Without Lilo there, he finally realized how tired he really was. He decided to lie down, and he fell asleep in moments.

**5:00 PM**

Stitch woke up to the sound of something sizzling, and the smell of meat on the air. He opened his eyes and could just see the kitchen, in which Jumba was making hamburgers. Stitch wondered for a moment why Jumba was using the grill inside, but decided it was probably better not to ask: Jumba was slightly defensive when it came to his cooking methods. Stitch sat up and stretched, as Lilo walked into the room.

"Hey Stitch, had a good nap?" She asked. Stitch nodded.

"I think I might have slept wrong, because my shoulder is killing me." He said, deciding not to bring up Lilo's decision until he had to.

Lilo crawled on the couch behind him. "Just relax and let me do this." She said, and she slowly started to massage Stitch's shoulders. Stitch closed his eyes, as the tension of several days seemed to melt away under her soft hands. She had been massaging him for a few minutes, when Jumba announced it was dinner. They sat at the table, and had to wait for Pleakly to come, who had been researching new ways of cleaning on Jumba's laptop.

"I hope this is better then the sausage we had the other day." Pleakly said as he sat down.

"It tasted fine!" Lilo said in Jumba's defense. "Besides, you still had another hour before the antidote wouldn't have helped and you would have dies. Plenty of time to make peace with your maker." Stitch said a quick prayer, and they were soon digging in to delicious hamburgers.

"These are great Jumba!" Stitch exclaimed.

"Is secret recipe. Passed down for generations in my family." He said. However, when Jumba turned his back, Stitch turned his vision to heat, and saw Frenchfry under the table, which was covered with a tablecloth. He saw Jumba give him a quick high-five, and then Stitch returned to his burger.

_At least it won't kill anyone_. Stitch thought. When they were done with the hamburgers, Stitch dug some ice cream out of the freezer, and they sat down and watched a horror movie together. Stitch saw what Jumba had picked, and almost burst out laughing: Dracula. In light of where his thoughts currently were, it was an adequate movie.

When the movie finished (around eight) Jumba told Lilo she had an hour until bed. Lilo knew he wasn't serious: he never enforced his bedtime rule. In fact, he rarely held on to any rules. If she asked, Lilo could have played with a chainsaw. She and Stitch decided to hang out in their room and play some video games. Time passed quickly, and when Stitch glanced at the clock, he saw it was eleven. He turned off the computer, and then turned to Lilo.

"Lilo, it's almost time to meet him. As I said before, you don't have to make a decision yet. You can ask him some questions first if you want. Just remember that you have to have your mind made up when you run out of questions." Lilo gulped and nodded. They yelled goodnight to Jumba and Pleakly, and turned off the light. They waited until half past to sneak out. They opened the window, and Stitch carried Lilo down on his back. Together, they ran into the forest to where they were supposed to meet Letho. They didn't have to wait long.  
"It's good to see you again Stitch. And who is our guest?" Letho asked, stepping into the moonlight.

"My name is Lilo." They shook hands. "So, you're a real vampire?"

Letho nodded. "I wasn't sure how much of Stitch's story you would believe, so I am ready to answer any question you may have for me."

Lilo looked confused. "How did you know that Stitch was going to ask me to go?"

"I have been watching him for the past few days." Letho answered. "I've seen how close you two have grown. I assumed that you would be the one he would ask to come with him. As I said, you have all the time to ask any question you want."

Lilo thought for a moment. "We drink blood, right?" Letho nodded. "What's it like? Does it hurt the person we drink from? Can we eat other food?"

Letho held up his hand. "One question at a time. Yes, we do drink blood. We need to drink every three nights or so to make sure we don't overfeed." He saw the confused look on Lilo's face. "Overfeeding is the term we use when we haven't fed for several days, maybe even a few weeks, and accidentally kill the person we drink from. It is rare, but it does happen. We can survive for about three weeks without blood. As far as what it's like, it's different for every person. To me, it tastes like chocolate. To my friend, it tastes like peppermint. Basically, it tastes like whatever we like the most. Yes, we can eat other food, but we don't need to. Some don't, but I do. I like to have chocolate cake every now and then. Just because we drink blood doesn't mean we can't enjoy real food."

Lilo nodded. "Ok, but does it hurt the person we drink from?" She asked again.

Letho sighed. "That is entirely up to the drinker. Generally, the victim doesn't feel a thing. However, we can change that. Generally, with people we were close to in life, we make it feel good: it's the best feeling in the world. Likewise, we can cause pain. Take my friend Vex for example; he was always bullied when he was younger, and therefore he generally makes his victims feel the pain he once felt. There are varying degrees of this pain, but we can always discuss that later."

Lilo glanced at Stitch, and she thought of another question. "Do vampires marry and have kids?" She asked, causing Stitch to turn a deep shad of magenta.

Letho chuckled. "Looks like your furry friend doesn't like that question Lilo. However, the answer is yes. Vampires marry a lot, but rarely do they have kids. Especially with this war, it is no time to raise a child. Some vampires fear marriage because they fear losing someone the love, and then living for centuries without them." Lilo pondered everything for a moment, before diving into the biggest question she had.

"Would I ever be able to see my family again?" She asked.

Letho took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That is tricky. While we do not forbid it, we strongly recommend against it. Many vampires have returned to their families, only to be rejected as a monster when they say what they truly are. Some wish to avoid the pain of going back, so they merely forget. Others, quite a few, have faked their deaths in order to evade search by the police, and therefore don't want to burden their family with their return. In the end, it is up to you whether you wish to return, but do not expect a welcome." He said. Lilo noticed a tear in his eye.

"Is that what happened to you?" She asked.

He nodded. "I was eighteen when I became a vampire. I don't want to tell all the details now, maybe never, but I did return to my family. I thought that they would accept me for who I was. As it turned out, I was nearly killed by my dad, who yelled at me as I ran that he never wanted to hear my name again." Tears started rolling down his face. "I decided then to never go back, never to watch them, or even try and find out about them."

They sat in silence, and Lilo realized she had run out of questions. Stitch had already told her about what she would gain, and she knew what she could, and probably would, lose. She sat down on a log and went deep into thought.

_Should I go? I mean, being a vampire would be really cool, but what about Nani and the rest of my ohana? I could come back, but would they want me? I could stay, but Stitch needs me, and I love him. I have so much to gain, and so much to lose. Is there a right choice in the matter? Stitch can save the people himself, but he would be really sad without me. What am I going to do!_ As these thoughts raced through her head, she thought of a conversation she had had with Nani a few weeks ago.

**Flashback**

"Nani, I need to ask you something." Lilo said. Nani was busy packing, trying to get ready as early as she could for her honeymoon. She stopped and sat down on the bed by Lilo.

"What is it baby?"

"Well, I have a problem." Lilo said. "I've always wondered, but now I need to know. I have something going on that I need to make a serious decision about; neither choice is right or wrong, and I could gain and lose a lot doing either one. I've thought about it for a while, but I don't know how to make up my mind. Do you?"

Nani nodded. "Sure. Whenever something like that happens, you have to get out of your brain, and listen to your heart. It knows the right move for everything, even if you don't think it does. If you hear it clearly, then you'll be making the best choices."

Lilo hugged her older sister. "Thanks Nani." She got up and started leaving the room.

"So, what's the decision about, Lilo?" Nani asked before Lilo could clear the door.

_She just had to ask_. Lilo thought. "It's about a boy. I'm thinking of telling him how I really feel."

"What's his name?" Nani asked.

_Stitch, who else_? Lilo thought. "I'll tell you later. I need to go do some listening.

**End Flashback**

_Does my heart know what to do_? Lilo thought. She cleared her mind, and tried listening to her heart. After a few minutes, she realized which choice she should make. She opened her eyes and stood up.

Letho looked at her. "Have you made up your mind?"

Lilo nodded. "I'm going to go with the person I love." She said. Stitch smiled and gave her a big hug, which she returned.

Letho nodded. "So be it. Now, listen carefully. Right now it's…" He checked his watch. "One o'clock. You two need to go to your house. Grab some things to take with you: nothing too big, just some personal items and something to carry them in. I want you back here by four. We need to catch a ride before the sun comes up."

"Where are we going?" Stitch asked.

"I'll tell you when you get back. You have three hours. Get going." Lilo and Stitch nodded and ran off into the night. Letho sighed and pulled out his phone.

"Seph, it's me." He said. "I'd hate to tell you, but she's coming. You know what, I actually think it's a good idea. What the hell do you mean!? I'm as sane as I ever was. Look, he needs someone close to him so that he doesn't feel alone." His voice started getting louder. "Yeah, well I don't care what you think right now. In fact, I rarely ever do. Belligerent? Belligerent!?" Letho was yelling into the phone now. "You have not seen anything close to belligerent yet asshole!" He closed the phone. He took a few deep breaths, and then sent a quick text message to Fiona, telling her of the situation. When he finished, he glanced back up at the sky.

"Why do I feel braver when she's around?" He asked the night sky. However, as he had expected, it gave him no answer.


	4. Last Night of Humanity

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch

I hope you have been enjoying the story so far. With nothing to really do as the summer draws to a close, I have plenty of time to type. Well, enough blabbering: on with the chapter!

Chapter 4: Last Night of Humanity

Lilo and Stitch ran back to the house. Stitch held Lilo as he climbed up the house and back into their room. "Ok Stitch. Let's get some stuff and go." Lilo said. Stitch nodded, and they started. Lilo decided to use her old backpack to put her stuff in. When she picked it up, memories from long ago came back. It was the same backpack she used back when she had met Stitch. She had been using it the day she met Cobra, all those years ago. She smiled at the memories, and started grabbing stuff. She grabbed more items of personal value, as she knew that they had to travel light. It didn't take very long. She grabbed her camera, her favorite Elvis video and record, a few changes of clothes (she figured they would have to buy more), and she also took Scrump. She looked around the room, and could think of nothing else to bring. She was about to leave when she thought of a picture that was hung on the wall.

After the many years, her wall had been completely covered with her many pictures. She scanned the wall, and smiled at all the pictures. The ones from her younger years were of tourist on the beach, most of them odd shots. Lately, she had been taking pictures of different places, generally where they had fought and captured experiments. She finally came across the ones she was looking for: the ones of her ohana. One of them was of her, her parents, Nani, and Stitch. They had added Stitch in after a fire had burned part of the photo. The other one was of her current ohana: depicting every single one of the experiments (Jumba had edited in Leroy and 627), her, Nani, David, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakly. They had taken it right after the Leroy battle. She carefully pulled them off the wall and set them in the side pocket of her bag so they wouldn't get damaged. She glanced once more around the room, and decided the only other thing she needed was her diary. Nani had suggested that she keep one after the Leroy battle. Lilo had never written in it, but decided that there wasn't a better time to start then now. She decided to wait for Stitch in her room, as that was undoubtedly where he would look for her first. She didn't have to wait long.

"Lilo ready?" Stitch asked. He had grabbed a small backpack.

"What are you bringing?" She asked. He tossed her his backpack, and she tossed him hers. She looked through it. There wasn't very much: he had what looked like a computer memory pack, some shorts (he had grown to enjoy wearing shorts around the house, for no real reason), instructions for what looked like coffee and coconut cake, and his favorite book, The Ugly Duckling. She smiled as she remembered having to explain it to Stitch many years ago. She glanced in the side pocket and found two pairs of sunglasses: the same pairs they wore when they were searching for Sparky to exchange for Jumba: back when their whole hunt had began. She smiled at all the memories in these few simple items.

"What's on the data card?"

Stitch shrugged. "Stuff. I copied everything from Jumba's laptop onto it. Even though I realized how much it held, I was still surprised that it was able to hold all the data."

"Any particular reason?" Lilo asked.

"It holds everything we should remember about them: the experiments, Nani, and everyone else."

"Oh!" Lilo exclaimed. She ran to her bed and lifted the pillow. Under it was the book she made, showing the name and true place of each experiment. She took her backpack back from Stitch and placed the book inside, confusing Stitch.

"But, all the info is on here!" He said, taking back his pack and pointing to the data pack.

Lilo smiled. "I know, but I like looking at things I made myself." They looked around the room, and Stitch saw a tear forming in Lilo's eye.

"Are you ok?"

"I want to know that we'll come back here some day, and Nani will accept us, no matter what we are." Lilo said, as the tears started rolling down her face.

Stitch walked over to her and brushed the tears away. "You really think Nani would throw you out just because you drink blood? She never threw you out when you ate mud pies. She never threw me out, even after she knew what I was capable of and I made her lose her job, and almost you. I think she'll be ok. It'll just be another notch up on the weirdness scale; nothing she can't handle."

Lilo gave Stitch a tight hug. "Thanks Stitch. I know you're right." She let go and looked around once more. "Is that it?" Stitch nodded. "Should we leave a note or something?"

Stitch shrugged. "Would it really make a difference? If we told Nani that you left to be a vampire, she would think that either you were crazier then usual, or that you were using it as an excuse to get away." He stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Let me leave a video log for Jumba. He might believe it, then. I'll have to use the computer in the ship." For the second time that night, and possibly the last time ever, Stitch carried Lilo out the window and down the side of the house. They ran to the ship, and Stitch accessed the computer. While he was working on the message, Lilo decided to look around the ship one last time. She was about to go back to Stitch, when she saw Jumba's safe. She thought for a moment at what Jumba had said.

"Molecular level, huh? I think that means it changes how you look and what you can do, right?" Lilo asked herself. She stared at the safe, and then shrugged. "I bet Jumba has a file on his laptop about it. I can find it later." She kneeled down to reach the keypad, and put in the password. It let out a beep, and the light on top turned green. She opened it up and pulled out the vial. This was the first time she got a good look at it: it was a dark blue, like Stitch's fur, and it moved around in a way that reminded Lilo of blood. She smiled, as she thought about that comparison and her current situation. Looking around, she decided to put the vial in another container, so it wouldn't break. She found the box with padding in it, and the vial sat in it perfectly. "Guess that's where he wanted to store it." Lilo said. She put it in, closed the box, locked it, and then slipped it into her backpack. She walked back just as Stitch was finishing up the message. She waited until he finished to talk.

"I'm ready when you are, Stitch." She said. Stitch shut off the computer and walked over.

"Me too. We still have some time, though. Is there anything you want to do before we go?" Stitch asked. Lilo shrugged.

"I don't know, we still have… two hours before we have to be back there. Jumba and Pleakly are busy sleeping in the house. We can pretty much do whatever we want out here, as long as we're quiet. We could play a game, or something." Lilo thought for a moment.

"Well, we could go fly around the island." She said. She snapped her fingers. "Let's take it with us! The hovercraft could really help us!" Stitch stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"It could, but how would we take it? We would need to take it on the plane, and I doubt it'll make it through… what is it called, customs?" He pointed out.

"Well, we can ask Letho about it. Worst case scenario, he says no and we have to send it back on autopilot." Lilo said. Stitch nodded. "Come on, one last flight around the island. Please?" Lilo asked. Stitch smiled, nodded, and they ran and got into the hovercraft. Lilo drove them around the island. For some reason, it seemed so much more beautiful at night then when they flew over it during the day. Even though they flew slowly, they still had a small amount of time left before they had to be back. Lilo parked it out over the ocean, and they rolled the seats back, and lay down and looked up at the stars.

"Stitch, do you think the stars will look the same where we're going? I mean, I know it's underground, but what about above it?" She asked, putting her arm around Stitch.

Stitch moved closer to her. "They'll look different, but the same moon will be hanging over us and them. All you have to do is look up, and know that they'll see the same thing."

Lilo smiled as she slowly stoked the fur on his head. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just afraid that they might not accept us."

Stitch glanced at her. "What, you mean the vampires or the fact that we're in love."

Lilo laughed. "Both. Jumba won't care about either; in fact, he'll probably be happy. Nani will be freaked out, but she'll live through it. Pleakly will have a double heart attack: first after we tell him we're vampires, then when we tell him we're in love." They continued to stare at the night sky, until Stitch said they needed to go. They had a quick kiss, and then drove off to the meeting point. They reached it in a short amount of time, and landed at the feet of an astounded Letho.

"Is this yours?" He asked, completely awed.

Lilo nodded. "We were wondering if it was possible to take it with us. It could come in handy."

Letho nodded his head. "It would be quite useful." He looked thoughtfully at it for a moment. "Let me make a call." He picked up the phone and dialed. As he waited for an answer, he explained to Lilo what he was doing. "I'm going to call an old friend of mine. He should be able to transport it without an issue. We always use him to do stuff like that; he has connections with connections to the government." He turned his back on them.

"Long time no see Vex. How's it going? How's the wife and kids? Listen, you probably already know why I'm calling. Yeah, of course Fiona told you. Any idea who else knows? Don't worry about it then, everyone probably knows by now. So, I need you to transport something for me. It's going to need to be top priority and top security. Important? Yeah, seriously. Not only that, but it's state of the art. No I'm not stealing it. Have I ever stolen… Never mind, don't answer that. I could use it ASAP. Tomorrow's flight would work. Thanks a lot man. Look, I'll bring them by you as soon as I can. Maybe on my way down. See ya." He flipped the phone closed and put it away. He turned back to Lilo. "We'll have it down there in two or three days. However, we have things to do before we go there, so it'll have to wait. Now, are you all ready to go?"

"Where should we put this?" Stitch asked, indicating the ship.

"It needs to be dropped off. Does it have to be driven?"

Stitch shook his head. "No, it has an autopilot. It just needs the coordinates."

Letho pulled his phone back out and started pressing buttons. "I can bring it up on here. Give me a minute." They waited, and after some more beeps and tones, Letho told him the location. Stitch plugged in the numbers, and, after making sure they had everything out, he set it off. It flew straight up, and was soon swallowed by the treetops. Letho nodded. "All right, we need to get going. I can blood one of you now, and then the other tomorrow night."

"Why can't you do both of us?" Lilo asked.

"Because, it taxes my body as well as yours." Letho responded. "Doing it twice is going to play heck on my body, but I'll be ok after a day or so. Besides, I can only do it twice every hundred fifty years."

"So, it's been over a hundred years since you had someone to look after?" Lilo asked.

Letho shook his head. "No, over three hundred since I did it last."

"Why?"

"It's just… not my thing really." He replied. Lilo sensed more, but knew that he wouldn't say anything at the moment. There was silence, and he spoke again. "So, who wishes to be blooded tonight?" Lilo and Stitch looked at each other, both slightly fearful.

"How does it work?" Lilo asked.

"It's quite simple. What I do is make a small incision on your neck. From there, I will need to drink a substantial amount of your blood. After I am done there, I will cut myself on the wrist and hold it to your cut: both cuts will be on an artery, so the blood flow will be swift. I only need to hold it there for a few minutes, and then I will seal both cuts. After about ten minutes, whoever I blood will have to feed off the other, in order to get the nutrients needed to handle your body for the next two days. Any questions?"

Lilo and Stitch both looked slightly confused. "Ok." Said Lilo. "Let me get this straight: you cut one of use, drink our blood, put your blood in us, seal the cuts, and then we drink from the other." Letho nodded. "How do you heal the cuts?"

"Vampire's have a slight regenerative ability: nothing big, but it will help with cuts like the ones we are dealing with. When we feed off a normal human, we will put a few drops of our blood on their wound, and it will seal it. Now, it won't do anything for... a gun shot or something like that, but it does help out here and there."

"How does it work? I mean, what does your blood have that makes me a vampire?" Lilo asked.

"Well, that's a little more complicated." Letho said. "Every hundred years, vampire blood starts to make a… a kind of venom, I guess, that can be used to change others. We can suppress it if we want, say if we were bleeding, so that we don't lose that ability. When you put enough of it into a normal person's blood stream, it starts to replicate itself and spread throughout the blood. That is the reason we need to drink the blood before the infusion: so that the body is weaker against it and will accept it more willingly. Eventually, every single blood cell has the copy, and everything in your body will be affected by it. When the change is complete, you will be a complete vampire. However, while that change takes place, we have to keep you under careful watch."

"Why?" Stitch asked.

"Because, the change is so severe, that the body goes… well, insane. During the change, what we call the Period, the body does strange things because of what is happening to it. If we left you alone, you might kill others, yourself, or any number of things. Which is why we need to catch the plane tonight: so that we can go somewhere you will be safe while you change."

"Where's that?" Lilo asked, becoming intrigued.

"I'll tell you later. What we need is to decide who is my… well, 'victim' for tonight. Please hurry, because we do have a flight we need to catch."

Everyone sat in silence. Lilo and Stitch were looking at each other, both communicating without having to say a word. Letho knew that they needed time, but he yearned to tell them to hurry. However, he knew that doing that wouldn't help, it would just hinder, so he stayed silent. The other two continued their silent conversation for almost ten minutes, while Letho leaned back and looked at the stars. Finally, Lilo stood up, and said Letho's naming, getting his attention.

"You've decided?" He asked.

Lilo nodded. "I'm going to go tonight."

Letho nodded. "Let's get started then." He motioned Lilo over, and he set her on her side in front of him, on top of a tall rock, so that it was easy for him to reach her neck while he was kneeling, and so it was easy for Stitch to stand by it and still see her next to him. "Now, since this isn't the exact same as feeding, you won't feel anything at all. In order to make it feel nice, I would have to use my saliva to pump it into your blood stream, and that would nullify the blood transfusion. So, just try and relax, ok?" He said. Lilo nodded, and Letho cracked his knuckles. He went to his waist and pulled out a switchblade. Stitch instantly started for him, but Letho held up his hand. "Please, this is only to make the cuts. I have soaked it in alcohol, so it's quite sanitary." Stitch nodded, but stayed wary and alert for the rest. Letho took a deep breath, and put the blade out. "Here we go."


	5. Beginning of a New Life

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch. They are the property of Disney.

Well, I hope you have been enjoying the story so far. With school coming back, these might take a little longer to get out, but I will try my best.

Chapter 5: Beginning of a New Life

Lilo felt the blade slide across the side of her neck; she bit her lip so she wouldn't cry out. She felt Letho put his mouth on the cut, and she felt the blood leaving her body. Slowly but surely, she could feel herself getting weaker. Stitch came over and held her hand, and she smiled and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she felt Letho's lips recede. He said something, but she only caught the words "Hurt a bit." She felt something else come against her neck, she assumed it was Letho's wrist, and she felt something coming into her body. After a moment, she felt like she was on fire. She was too weak to move or cry out, so she squeezed Stitch's hand as hard as she could. She could tell by the way he squeezed back that he wanted to help her, but couldn't. After bearing a few more minutes of pain, it finally receded, and she was left gasping for air on top of the rock. She felt a prickling sensation on the side of her neck, and after running her hand there, realized that the cut was gone. As she tried regaining her breath, Stitch held her close to him. Had it been a normal day, she would have hugged him close, and maybe even started kissing him, but today was far from normal: she just hung in his grasp for another couple of minutes. When she finally her breath back, she sat up slowly, and saw Letho, now slightly pale, sitting against a tree.

"Well, it worked." He said. "The reason I look bad is because I just lost a lot of blood changing you. Tomorrow's going to be worse, because I already lost quite a bit from today. But I'll be ok. Give another minute or two, and then I'll teach you how to feed." He closed his eyes and leaned against the tree, while Lilo, still sitting on the rock, leaned against Stitch, who slowly massaged her shoulders. Her head was spinning, but the world seemed to be righting itself bit by bit. She closed her eyes, and opened them after a minute, and she could see clearly. After another minute, Letho stood up, a little shakily, and approached them. "Ready?" Stitch let go of Lilo's shoulders and took a step back. Lilo glanced back at him, and then nodded. He motioned Stitch over, and he came, if somewhat reluctantly. "Feeding is quite simple. What we do is we find a target. This time, it's going to be your best friend, so we can skip past the incapacitate part. Next, you need to find a spot to feed from. The precise spot varies between vampires, but I prefer a spot with a lot of blood flow, but I try and stay away from major arteries; you never know when you might have to run without cleaning up. Once you find a spot, you make an incision; I always use my knife, which I keep in alcohol to keep the wounds clean. You drink your fill, spread a small amount of your blood on top to close the wound, and you're done. Some times, I tend to move the person I drink from into a place that they'll be protected until they wake up. Got it?"

"How do I know when to stop? What if I drink too much and kill someone? And how do I make it feel good or bad?" Lilo asked, afraid of hurting or even killing Stitch.

"It's just like eating: when you get full, you stop. Now, if you're afraid you're drinking too much, stop drinking from that person and go to another: there's nothing wrong with playing it safe. I admit, though, that quite a few vampires, if they haven't fed for a while for some reason, some times accidentally kill the person they feed from. I don't think that you'll ever do that, but if you do, you need to get rid of the body and leave as fast as you can: you want to draw the least amount of attention to yourself. As far as how it feels, you don't do anything. When your saliva enters his blood stream and hits his brain, it will affect him depending on your relationship. If you hate the person, it will hurt, where if you like them a lot, it will feel good. If you've never met the person, they probably won't feel a thing. You ready?" Lilo nodded. Letho turned and walked away. "Tell me when you're done."

"Aren't you going to stay and make sure I do it right?' Lilo asked.

Letho shook his head. "I think it's rude to watch another vampire while they feed. Besides, you know what you're doing, Stitch is the safest person in the world to feed from, and I have to make sure we have our plane tickets. Yell when you're done."

Lilo and Stitch glanced at each other nervously. "Stitch, I don't know how your body is, so I need you to tell me where a good spot would be without hitting an artery. And I'm going to need to cut you open some how."

Stitch glanced up and down his body, finally marking a spot on his upper left arm. "Right here should do the trick. I'll use my claws, because that's probably the only thing around that will cut through." He crawled up onto Lilo's lap, lying on his side so his left arm was up towards her. He raised his right hand and put a gash across the arm, and then put his hand back, closed his eyes, and waited for Lilo to drink.

Lilo glanced at the magenta blood oozing from the cut. At first, the thought of drinking it was appalling, and downright sickening, but her new vampire side kicked in, and she put her mouth over the wound, and started letting the blood flow into her mouth and down her throat.

Stitch felt her put her mouth on the cut, and could feel the blood leaving his body. After a moment, a new feeling came; one he couldn't really describe. He felt completely weightless, and every nerve pulsed with pleasure and happiness. Even though he couldn't move, he felt like he could do anything. _If this is what heaven feels like, I want to die_. Stitch thought. He moaned with pleasure as he closed his eyes: he couldn't see anything except Lilo's clothes, anyway.

Lilo heard Stitch moan, and at first thought she was hurting him. She glanced down and saw his eyes closed, with a dreamy smile on his face. He moaned again, and Lilo realized it wasn't from pain, but from sheer happiness. After another minute, she stopped drinking, and withdrew her mouth. She used Stitch's claw to make a small cut on herself, and spread her blood across the wound: her wound and Stitch's closed within moments. Lilo wiped the blood off her mouth with her arm, and she glanced at Stitch, who was now fast asleep, the same look on his face as when she had been feeding off him. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered "Thank you Stitch." She sat up and called out Letho's name: he appeared a moment later.

"Are you done?" He asked. Lilo nodded.

"Is he ok?"

Letho nodded. "It always happens when we feed. He'll wake up in twenty minutes or so. When he does, we'll need to disguise him as a boy so we can all get on the plane together. Come; let us go to the dock. We'll need to get to the mainland so we can catch our plane." They started heading towards the dock, Lilo, with some difficulty, carrying Stitch.

"So, where are we headed exactly?" Lilo asked.

"As I said before, I will tell you when we are on the plane. For now, let's just keep walking."

"How will we get to the mainland?" Lilo asked. "None of the ferries run this late."

"I have my own boat. It's not very hard to have a lot of money when you live for hundreds of years." He glanced at Lilo and saw the look on her face. "It's not a yacht. We don't need giant boats like that. What I have is a speedboat: larger then average, but still fairly small. We'll be there in a few minutes." He saw Lilo was starting to struggle to keep up. "Here, I can carry Stitch. You just focus on walking." Although Lilo wanted to carry Stitch, she realized that she wouldn't be able to keep up if she continued to carry him. Reluctantly, she handed him off to Letho.

"How do we get Stitch on the plane? They don't allow pets on unless they go back by the luggage. When he wakes up, he's not going to be happy."

"He'll wake up before we get to the airport; he'll be a little weak, but he'll be ok. All we have to do is disguise him as a human boy, and we'll be able to take him on. I believe you've done that before."

Lilo nodded. "We've done it several times. I always wonder how people don't notice it."

"In all my years of life, I have discovered that the majority of people don't want to accept change or things out of the ordinary: they want life to be so normal, that they close their eyes to what really goes on, and see only what they want. That's just how things work in this world." Letho said. "However, it's generally the ones that are… very different that see the out of ordinary."

"Yeah, I was always different." Lilo said. They finished the trip to the dock in silence. When they arrived, Letho went to the very end, and uncovered his boat. As he had said, it was larger then most speedboats, but still quite small. It was fairly plain, and painted midnight black.

"Not my first choice of color." Letho said as they got on. "But it is necessary to live with certain things to avoid detection. Sit down and hold on." He started the boat, and soon they were skipping across the waves.

Lilo was apprehensive at first, never having crossed the islands in a boat like this, but she soon felt comfortable. "This is really fun!" She said as the boat made her bounce up and down slightly in the seat. Letho smiled, but said nothing as he continued to steer the boat. When they got closer to the mainland, he cut the boats power and let it drift silently onto the very end of the dock.

"First thing we need is to pick up a disguise for Stitch." Letho said as the left the boat. "He should wake up soon. Once he's ready, we'll hit the airport. We aren't going out of the country, so we won't need passports."

"Nothing's open right now." Lilo said as she glanced up and down the dark street. "Where are we going to get the clothes?"

"Well, generally what we do is we take what we need, and pay back double." Letho said.

"You mean steal?" Lilo asked.

"I know you don't like it! But at the moment, that's the only way. Besides, we always pay back for what we take."

"That doesn't make it ok!" Lilo said, her voice rising.

"Well, what do you suggest then?" Letho asked.

Lilo pondered a moment. "Well, he has shorts already, and some sunglasses. All he needs is a hat and a shirt, right?" Letho nodded. Lilo dove into her bag and pulled out one of the few shirts she owned; she generally wore her red muumuu. "It'll be a little loose, but it should fit. All we need is a hat."

Letho pulled a small baseball cap out of his bag, bearing the words 'White Sox'. "Always have a hat with me. I like to change disguises, especially if I have to follow someone. Since we aren't going to Chicago, he shouldn't get any grief about it."

"I don't really follow sports." Lilo said as she took the hat. "I just never got the point. My uncle Jumba thinks hockey is great because of all the fighting. Nani likes watching tennis, and my aunt Pleakly loves to watch basketball. Stitch… he likes football."

Letho smiled. "Of course he does. Any sport you get to tackle other people he would like." As they started laughing, Stitch groaned and started moving. "He's waking up." Letho said. He handed him off to Lilo.

It took a minute for Stitch to wake up. When he opened his eyes, he said, 'More cake please."

"Is he ok?" Lilo asked, suddenly afraid Stitch had had a nasty side effect.

"He'll be fine. His brain will be slightly… jumbled from the experience. He should be ok in a minute." Stitch muttered for a bit longer about cake and walks and coffee, none of it making sense to Lilo. He finally stopped and looked up at Lilo.

"Everything ok?" He asked.

Lilo stroked his head. "Everything's fine. We have a disguise all set up for you, and we're ready to get going. We're going to give you a moment to work up your strength."

"Stitch don't need time." He growled. However, as he stood up, his legs gave out and he crashed on top of Lilo, who started laughing.

"Give it a minute hero boy. We've got time." She said. He got off of her and sat across from her. She passed him the hat, shirt, and he pulled out one of his pairs of shorts and the sunglasses. He put them all on.

"How do I look?" He asked, standing up and doing a little turn.

"Well, except for the fact that your ears stick out, not much. Just let them hang loose, and no one will notice." She said. "At least you didn't make the shorts yourself, or you might have your tail sticking out of the back."

"Yeah, because that would be so much more embarrassing then Clip." Stitch said as the trio walked to the airport.

Lilo laughed as the memory came back. She and Stitch had been chasing after Clip, who had grown larger with all the hair she had eaten. Just before Lilo had been run over, Stitch had tossed her out of the way, saving her head of black hair, and sacrificing the fur on his butt.

"Yeah, your naked patookie sure dealt a blow to your pride, didn't it?" Lilo asked. Stitch merely growled, remembering how he had had to wear the hula skirt for almost two weeks before enough fur had grown back to cover it. After walking for almost ten minutes, Letho pointed.

"There it is: Honolulu International Airport. We'll take the plane from here, and hit Des Moines in Iowa: I promised Vex to bring you guys by. Besides, you still have to go through the Period; we can't go to the Caverns until you do."

"What is the 'Period'?" Lilo asked.

"Not now." Letho said. "We need to wait until we are in private." They entered the airport and went through all the check-ins and security stuff. By the time they got through it all, about 40 minutes, the plane they needed had started loading. They had seats in second class. They let Stitch take the window seat, so he would attract less attention, Lilo next to him, and Letho took the aisle seat. After half an hour, the announcement came on to fasten seatbelts and prepare for takeoff. They took off, and they were allowed to take them off. However, Lilo and Stitch were extremely tired from the day's events. They left their seatbelts on, and slowly drifted off to sleep. When Letho looked over at them, they were leaning against each other, deep in sleep and snoring lightly.

**Seven hours later**

After spending six hours on the plane and making it through customs, they had finally made it out of the airport; they were now in Des Moines, Iowa. Letho had rented a car and was driving down the road.

"So, we're going to see you're friend?" Lilo asked.

"Yep." Letho said. "We'll get there in a few minutes. He lives just outside of town."

"What's his name?" Lilo asked.

"I'd better warn you ahead of time. His name is Vex, a really nice guy. He has a wife and two kids. The wife is fine, if a little crazy, but the kids are quite mischievous; you'll need to watch out for them. The kids are named Seras and Matthew. Angelina looks quite innocent, but has a lot of brains and wit. Matthew is more of the brawn; he could probably crush you in two without thinking about it. Together, they make a formidable pair. The wife, Maggie, is… a little loopy, to put it nicely. If she starts babbling, just nod your head and look like you're paying attention."

"So, how does this Period work?" Lilo asked.

"Basically, it's when your body starts undergoing the change from human to vampire." Letho explained. "It takes about two or three days for it to finish. It is painful, and you sometimes lose your senses: you attack, destroy, and go through spasms. We're going to have to separate you from each other for the time. You should be safe, but Stitch will probably need to be restrained as he is far stronger then normal."

"And after that?" Lilo asked.

"Then, we go to the Caverns." He said. "Ah, there it is." He pointed at the building.

"You call that a house?" Lilo asked. "It looks more like a small castle!"

"Vex was never did things… small." They pulled up into the driveway.

Well, there is chapter 5. With school starting, I am starting to fall behind in typing, so don't get annoyed if I miss a post: I probably have schoolwork. Please review.


	6. New Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 6: New Friends

Letho turned off the car and they all got out. Locking the car behind them, they trudged up to the door. Grasping the large, bronze knocker, Letho slammed it into the door three times. As the knocks echo faded, the door opened to reveal a large figure. "Letho! Didn't think you would be here so soon!" The door swung open.

"Good to see you again Vex." They embraced and Letho turned to Lilo and Stitch. "Vex, this is Lilo and Stitch. Guys, this is Vex: one of my oldest and best friends. He has extended his hospitality to us for a couple of days." Lilo studied Vex up and down. He was about six feet tall, had green eyes, and wore a black cloak, black boots, and black gloves. From what she could see of his body, he was quite thing, almost sickly looking. It reminded her of a mad scientist from all those movies. He also had long, blond hair, which caught Lilo off guard.

"I thought all vampires had black hair." She said.

Vex laughed. "I had to go through so much trouble to get my hair back to this color. In fact, I have to go through a lot of trouble to keep it like this, but I like it: it's different. Come in, I'll show you your rooms." The stepped inside, and Vex closed the door behind them.

"The wife and kids here?" Letho asked.

"Went to bed early." Vex said, leading them upstairs. "She ran out earlier to grab some stuff, and then hit bed. The kids ran around all night, so they went early too." They walked down the hall and Vex opened the door. "This is your room." He said, motioning to Lilo and Stitch. They walked inside, and saw it was about the size of a master bedroom: it held two beds, two closets, a window, and a small bath room with a tub and shower off to the side. "Letho, your room is down the hall. If you need anything, just ask me." Lilo and Stitch walked into the room.

"Stitch, you and I have an appointment tomorrow." Letho said. Stitch nodded

"Oh, one more thing." Vex said. "Watch out for my kids; they're quite mischievous. They won't waste a moment either drawing you in to their schemes, or having you at the end of them."

"We'll watch out." Lilo promised. Vex closed the door, and he and Letho walked down the hall. Lilo turned to Stitch.

"Let's unpack a bit, since we'll be here for a few days." She said.

"What do we have to unpack?" Stitch asked.

Lilo shrugged. "Not much, but at least it will feel kind of like home." She said. They unpacked their small stash of items, before Stitch glanced out the window.

"You think we'll be able to sleep during the day?" He asked.

"Eventually." Lilo said. "I think it'll be hard to adjust at first. But we'll get used to it." She stood by the window, and looked at the sunrise. Stitch came and stood by her.

"Won't see this too many more times." Stitch said, putting his arm around Lilo.

Lilo smiled and leaned her head on Stitch's shoulder. "Let's enjoy it while we can, then." They watched the sun come over the horizon for several minutes, before Lilo yawned. "We slept a lot, and yet I'm still kind of tired." She said. Stitch picked her up and set her on her bed. He walked over and jumped on his bed.

"See you later." He said.

"Night Stitch." Lilo said, closing her eyes.

Stitch got back up and shut the heavy curtains to block out the sunlight. "Don't you mean morning?" He asked as he crawled back in bed in the now pitch black room.

Lilo let out a little laugh. "Whatever." Soon, both of them were asleep.

**17:00 Hours****(5PM)**

Stitch woke up and looked around: utter darkness. A moment later, he remembered everything, and sighed. Turning over, he turned on his night vision and scanned the room. The curtains certainly did cut out all of the light. Looking around, he saw Lilo was sleeping peacefully, her stomach rising and falling with each breath. Stitch thought for a moment, and figured that the time for vampires was probably the reverse: the normal human version of 6 AM for vampires was probably 6 PM. No one would be up for another hour or so. He knew he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so he dug through his stuff and pulled out the computer pack. He turned it over, studying it in the green light of his vision. He wasn't sure what exactly was on here, but he knew that there was going to be some good information. He looked around the room, trying to find a spot to hide it, just in case Vex's two kids decided to mess with it.

Slipping out of bed, Stitch climbed up the wall with the block in hand, and tore a shallow hole in the ceiling. There was room between it and the floor above, so Stitch slid it in. He replaced the piece of ceiling, and instantly realized he had no way of covering it. Glancing around the room, he saw a closet in the bathroom. Careful not to wake Lilo, he scurried across the ceiling, down the wall, and opened the closet's sliding door. Inside it was mostly towels, toothpaste, and other stuff you would expect to find in a bathroom. On the very bottom sat several cans of paint. Running through their labels, he found the one that was the color of the ceiling. Grabbing it and a towel, he crawled back up the wall and opened it carefully, making sure that it opened towards him. Using the towel, he spread the paint over the cracks he had made: a lot of it. When he finished, he examined it; because it was dark, it wasn't easy to tell how well he had done. Shrugging, he closed the can and put it back. Not knowing where to hide a paint covered towel, he ate it. Climbing down the wall, he sat on his bed, completely still, listening for sounds of anyone awake in the house. Hearing no one, he groaned, figuring he would have to stay in bed for another hour or two while he waited for Vex or someone else to wake up. However, after several minutes, he distinctly heard two voices outside his door. By the sounds, it was a boy and a girl.

"All right, here's the plan." The boy whispered. "We have the razor silenced, so I'll shave the fur off the dog-thing's butt."

"I'll pour glue in the hair of the girl." The other voice said. "Then I'll stick it to the pillow."

"Then we rig the door for when they open it." The boy finished. "Let's get going. Just remember to be quiet." Shutting off his night vision, Stitch spread the sheet over him and pretended to be asleep. Moments later, he heard the door opened almost silently. Opening his eyes a fraction, he watched to figures walk in. Since the light was shining behind them, he could only see the silhouettes. The one that looked like a guy crept over by his bed. The other one, probably a girl judging by the long hair, though Vex had fairly long hair, crept over to Lilo's bed. As the boy started up the razor and moved close, Stitch made his move: grabbing the hand that held the razor, Stitch flipped him onto the bed. Still being able to see the girl, he grabbed her in one, swift movement, and tossed her on top of the boy. Grabbing both of them by the collar, he dragged them outside and shut the door behind him. Giving himself a quick moment to adjust to the light, he looked at his two captives.

The boy appeared to be about 13 years old. He had short, black hair, blazing green eyes, and was on the short side. He was dressed in simple shorts and t-shirt. He didn't look intelligent, but he had a strong build. Turning his gaze to the girl, he studied her. She appeared to be 13 also. She was about three inches taller then the boy, her hair was long and straight, and she also had blazing green eyes. She wasn't strongly built, but Stitch saw her eyes radiating intelligence that exceeded her age. They looked up at him in surprise, and he decided to start asking questions.

"So, you two want to explain yourselves?" Stitch asked. They both jumped in surprise.

"Seras, did that dog just talk?" The boy asked.

"Yeah, that dog did talk Matt." The girl said.

"I've never seen a talking dog." Matt said.

Stitch growled. "Next person to call me a dog gets their larynx ripped out. Now, why were you going to shave my patookie and glue Lilo's hair to a pillow?"

"We always welcome guests like that." Matt said.

"Actually, we generally do more." Seras said. "But since you guys were with Letho, we were going to go easy on you."

"What were you going to do to the door?" Stitch asked.

Matt shrugged. "I just do as I'm told. She figures out the plans, and then has me repeat them so she knows that I know what I'm doing."

"I was going to set a simple system so that when you opened the door it would throw you backward. Just as you were thrown back, it would activate a pulley system that would drop a gallon of paint on your head." Seras said.

"And you know how to do all that?" Stitch asked, releasing them from his grasp.

Matt nodded. "I've seen her hack government computers. She's really intelligent." He glanced back in the room. "So her name's Lilo?" Stitch nodded. "What's yours then?"

"My name Stitch." They shook hands. "Since you obviously don't know, I'm not a dog, but a genetic experiment from another galaxy."

"I knew there was life out there." Seras said, unfazed. "I've seen a lot of space ships around this planet from time to time. I don't know what language they use, but I think that I have it translated to English correctly. I took the readings from a ton of ships, and set them through a translator for letters. Maybe you could come to my room and see if they're right." Before Stitch could answer, Vex appeared in the hallway.

"Kids, what have I told you about pulling pranks on our guests?" Vex asked.

"Not to get caught." Matt said.

"Right. Now, you are going to need to leave them alone for a bit: they still have some stuff they need to do with Letho." Vex said.

"I'll be down there later." Stitch said to Seras. She nodded, and then her and Matt went down the hallway and vanished from view.

"We generally get up at 6." Vex said. "But I figured that since you aren't completely vampires yet, that you wouldn't sleep all day. So I got up as early as I could to make sure that you could leave before they got you with their pranks."

Stitch shrugged. "It's fine. With them around, I'll be kept on my toes." The door next to them opened, and Lilo stepped out, rubbing her eyes.

"What was all the commotion?" Lilo asked.

"Nothing." Stitch said. "Just some would-be prank-pullers."

"When will Letho be up?" Lilo asked.

"He won't wake up for another hour or so." Vex said. "Let me show you to the kitchen. After you have breakfast, you can hang out for a bit."

"You have stuff besides blood here? Lilo asked.

"Just because we don't need it doesn't mean we don't eat it." Vex said. "I myself enjoy a lot of cherries. My daughter enjoys coffee for some reason. My point is that even though we don't need it, we eat it for enjoyment. We also have it incase a normal person comes over so we don't arouse suspicion. Follow me." Lilo and Stitch fell in step behind Vex, and were soon in the kitchen. They were about to sit down when they saw someone in the kitchen, cramming fries into her mouth.

"Maggie, this is Lilo and Stitch. Guys, this is my wife, Maggie." Vex said.

Maggie swallowed what was in her mouth. "Pleased to meet you." She turned to Vex. "I was going to go shopping today. Letho said that she was going to need some new clothes. I'm going to leave once the sun goes down." Letho nodded, and Maggie left the room, leaving the rest of her food on her plate.

"I thought you said she was weird." Lilo said as they sat down.

"This is one of her nice days. I don't think you'll run into anything too odd with her today." Vex said. Going to the fridge, he pulled out several slices of cold pizza. "Letho said you might enjoy these."

Lilo smiled. "It's my favorite!" She started eating immediately, while Stitch glanced around the room.

"Coffee?" He asked in a hopeful tone.

Vex smiled. "Sure. My daughter just made some." Pouring him a mug, he left them to eat. Stitch sipped the coffee.

"Wonder how long we're going to be here." Lilo said.

Stitch shrugged. "Who knows, could be quite a while." He glanced up at Lilo, who was happily eating her pizza. "Aren't you homesick?" He asked.

Lilo shook her head. "I made my decision to be with you. I'm not going to look back and question that."

"You're avoiding the question." Stitch said.

Lilo sighed and put down her pizza slice. "I guess things are moving too fast right now for me to miss home. Once we settle down a bit, I'll probably miss them a lot. What about you?"

Stitch nodded. "I'm going to miss them a lot."

Lilo looked up at Stitch. "Once we finish saving the vampires, I promise to go home and visit Nani."

Stitch nodded. "Me too." Finishing off their food, Stitch grabbed the coffee pot and the walked out of the kitchen. Wanting to go visit Seras, he sniffed around and followed her scent. He followed it to a door, which appeared to be locked. Taking a sip from the coffee pot, Stitch looked around. From what he could see, it looked like the doorknob acted as a fingerprint scanner. Switching his vision, he stared at the current running through the knob, figuring out if he could beat it. Lilo stood by him silently, knowing he was busy thinking.

Stitch didn't want to ruin the handle, so he decided to try and fool the system. Unsheathing his claws, he inserted one into the lock and proceeded to start picking it. Carefully moving his nail around, he changed the current of the wires just long enough to make it believe that Seras' thumb was actually pressed on it. With a quiet ding, the door lock clicked. Switching back to normal vision and retracting his claws, Stitch turned the knob, and he and Lilo walked in.

"Hey Stitch." Seras said.

"How'd you guess?" Stitch asked, taking a sip of coffee and closing the door.

"You're probably the only one in the world who has the ability to pick that lock. So, what do you think of my room?" She asked, gesturing with her arms.

Stitch looked all around the room, amazed by everything in there. Computers covered most of the floor, either intact or in several pieces. The walls were covered with diagrams and charts of various computer systems, pieces of hardware, and ways around them. Seras appeared to be constructing a computer in a virtual creation on her computer, which was a Macintosh. "Nice place. Any of these yours?"

Seras nodded. "I'm working on one right now. It's small, and a lot faster then most computers. I'm trying to make the first miniature super-computer."

Stitch smiled. "I can think faster then a super computer." Seras turned around, eyes wide.

"Wow. I wish I could harness speed like that." Seras closed her virtual creation, and opened up another file. "So, are these translations correct?" She asked. Stitch walked up and looked over the letters.

"Yeah, they're right. So what ships did you find these on?"

Seras pulled up several pictures. "These." The pictures were of several ships, all of which Stitch knew: the red police cruiser, the Grand Council Woman's, Gantu's, Hamsterviel's, Jumba's, and the BRG9000. "Know any of them?"

Stitch thought that question over. His head told him not to trust so quickly, but his heart told him he could trust her, and it would pay to have someone know the entire truth. "I'll be right back." He ran back to the room he and Lilo shared and climbed to the ceiling. Breaking it back open, he pulled out the data block. He decided not to bother putting the ceiling back together, and ran back to Seras' room. Finding it open, he went right inside and handed the block to Seras.

"This is everything you can know about us." He said. "Some of it is more personal then the rest; I believe Jumba kept a journal on there."

Seras stared at it. "The sheer amount this holds: I don't know of any computer that could hold all this data. Good thing I have a way around it." She grabbed several USB cables, and connected them to a large black pack, and then connected the pack to the data block. "This is one of my creations. It allows six computers to simultaneously download the data. It first separates the data into six equal areas, and then copies them. While that goes, let's do something fun." Going to her main computer, she grabbed what appeared to be a helmet.

"What's that for?" Lilo asked. Up until then, she had been looking through one of the computer files.

"This will let me take a look at the brain that makes up Stitch." Seras answered. "It won't hurt at all."

"I'm game." Stitch said. Seras strapped it on, and went to her computer.

"You might feel a little weird." She said. She turned the helmet on, and Stitch instantly felt light headed and fuzzy all over. He sat on the ground, and looked up at the screen, now covered with a map of his brain.

"This is amazing." Seras said. "You use 100 percent of your brain for everything, which is why you think so fast. Your memories are wired to your brain, so they are difficult to get rid of. When you set your mind on a problem, your brain uses all of its power to solve it. This is amazing." A knock sounded on the door.

"Lilo, Stitch, you and I have some talking to do." Letho called in. Seras turned off the helmet and took it from Stitch.

"Don't worry, I'll start looking over the data of yours that's been downloaded, but it won't finish until tomorrow night." Seras said.

"We'll drop by later." Lilo said. She and Stitch walked out of the room, and Letho waited outside.

"Let's go to my room to talk." He said.

Please review!


	7. Mysteries

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 7: Mysteries

Lilo and Stitch followed Letho upstairs to his room. When they got inside, he shut the door behind them.

"Ok." He said. "The first thing on our agenda is for me to blood Stitch. After that, he needs to feed, and then I am going to sit down and explain the Period in a little more detail. However, we will probably have to wait until after I take a quick nap. After that, you guys can go back to hanging out for a day or two. Then the Period hits, you ride it out, and then we head to the Caverns."

"Sounds like fun." Lilo said sarcastically. "Let's go jumping off of cliffs next."

Letho smiled. "I know it doesn't sound like it's going to be a lot of fun, but there isn't a lot we can do until we get you through all the registration process."

"Registration?" Lilo asked.

"My term for it. Every time a human becomes a vampire, they are presented before the council. They do some wacky stuff, and then you officially become a vampire. After that, we are basically free to go where we want."

"So, where do we get the person that Stitch will feed from?" Lilo asked.

"The town we came through always has a person or two laying around the street we can use. That's where most vampires get their blood."

Lilo thought for a moment. "I'm still human, right?"

"Mostly, yes." Letho answered.

"Could he drink from me then?"

Letho thought for a moment. "It hasn't been 24 hours yet, so your blood would still be human enough for him to drink it." He thought for a moment. "It has never been tried before, but theoretically it would be fine."

"What happens if a vampire drinks another vampires blood, anyway?" Stitch asked.

"Well, it would be similar to drinking poison from a hemlock plant: deadly. Now, since Stitch's anatomy is far different then our own, it might have a different effect, but I personally wouldn't take chances. But it is up to you. I will exert no power over you."

Stitch thought for a moment. "If Lilo is ok with it, I'll take the chance." He said finally. They both turned to Lilo.

"Yeah, I'm ok with it. It's not my choice to make, anyway." Lilo said.

Letho nodded. "So be it. Now Stitch, I don't know how to get through your skin. I know that a normal knife won't work, so I'm hoping you have an idea."

Stitch nodded. "My claws are strong enough to make it through, so I'll just have to make the cut myself."

"Ok." Letho said. "Are you two ready?" Lilo and Stitch glanced at each other, and nodded. "Come here Stitch. It's your turn." Stitch gulped and walked over slowly.

"Hey, at least you get to lay on a bed. I got a rock." Lilo said. Stitch nodded, and got up on the bed.

"Make the cut right here." Letho said, pointing to an area on Stitch's neck.

"I'll be right here Stitch." Lilo said, standing right by the bed: behind him, since Stitch was lying on his side, facing the other way where Letho was. Lilo held his hand, and Stitch took a deep breath. Using his extending his lower arm on Lilo's side, he slid it across the side of his neck, opening it up. As the blood started pouring down, Letho put his mouth on it, and started to drink. Stitch slowly lost feeling in his entire body: his entire body, except for the hand Lilo held. He didn't care if he died, as long as the last person he could feel was Lilo. After several minutes, he heard the word 'hurt' and he knew what was coming next. Steeling himself, insane pain surged through his body. He couldn't shout or cry out; all he could do was squeeze Lilo's hand. Even through his pain, he was careful not to crush it. Slowly, his normal feeling returned to him, and after a few more minutes, he felt mostly normal again. He felt the wound on his neck seal, but he continued to lie where he was, breathing heavily. He heard Letho close by, breathing far heavier then him. After taking another minute to catch his breath, he slowly sat up and looked around. Letho was on the ground to his left, pale and quite short on breath. To his right was Lilo, still holding his hand tightly.

"Stitch ok?"

Letho nodded. "You'll be fine. You can feed now. I would suggest doing it in your room, so that you don't have to carry Lilo very far when it's over. You can't do it here, because I am going to go to bed now: these two changes have taken a lot out of me."

Lilo nodded. "Come on Stitch, let's leave Letho to rest." Stitch got off the bed, and stood rather unsteadily. Lilo helped support them as they left the room, walked down the hall, and entered theirs. They went to Lilo's bed and hopped on.

"Lilo ready?" Stitch asked.

Lilo sighed, and nodded a moment later. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's just get this over with." Stitch sat down and motioned Lilo over. Lilo laid across his legs, facing him, with her chin just past his body. Stitch rolled up the sleeve on her left arm, the one facing up, and gulped.

"Here we go." He said. He put one of his claws on her arm, and made the cut. Lilo let out a little gasp of pain, and Stitch gritted his teeth. He watched the blood flow from the wound, and wondered how he could possibly drink it. After a moment, his new instinct kicked in, and he put his mouth on the cut, and let the blood flow down his throat.

Lilo was uncomfortable at first, the feeling of her blood being drunk not that great. Suddenly, a new feeling overcame the first one: one of weightlessness, and pure happiness. She never wanted the feeling to stop, ever. She moaned out of sheer pleasure as Stitch continued to drink. After a few minutes, the feeling overtook her, and she fell into unconsciousness.

Stitch drank his fill, and then removed his mouth from the wound. He felt something around his waist and looked down at Lilo. She had a look of pure happiness across her face, and it was obvious she was sleeping. However, she had unconsciously wrapped her arms around his waist. He decided to spend another minute there, and carefully picked Lilo up in his arms. He held her close to him, and slowly rocked her back and forth, like one would a baby. After a few seconds of this, Stitch felt Lilo shuffle close to him, and bury her face him his chest fur, making him involuntarily purr with delight.

_I never want her to leave me_. Stitch thought. After another minute, he set her down on the bed and put the covers over her. He tiptoed out of the room, and shut the door behind him. _She'll wake up in a few hours, and then we'll have another talk with Letho_. He glanced at his watch, which read 9:30. It wouldn't be lunch until midnight. _Never thought I'd eat lunch in the middle of the night_. He decided to spend a while down with Seras and he mountain of computers. He walked down to her room, and was about to go right in, but decided it was more polite to knock. He rapped on the door three times, and the door opened.

"Hey Stitch! Come on over. My computers haven't gotten very much of it, but this stuff is amazing." Stitch walked in and the door automatically closed behind him.

"What have you been looking at?" He asked.

"Well, I've been pouring over the list of your cousins. I must say, they are truly an amazing and diverse bunch. You know, I think you might have to take me to meet this Jumba guy: his work is amazing."

Stitch nodded. "Yeah, it really is. Anything else?"

Seras shook her head. "I spent most of the time pouring over that stuff. However, I do plan on going over the journal and all the data and math for making these guys: who knows, I might make one or two of my own one day. So, how'd it go with Letho?"  
Stitch rubbed the spot on his neck that Letho had blooded him with. "It hurt."

Seras smiled. "I never had to go through all that, thankfully. However, I do plan on studying you guys during the Period, if you don't mind."

Stitch shook his head. "I sure don't. But, what do you know about it?"

"The Period? Nothing, actually. My parents never talked about it, and I never saw a point in asking."

"Download at… 40 percent." The computer rang out.

"So, what do we do now?" Stitch asked.

"Well, I'm assuming you have to wait around for Letho to get you, and he'll probably sleep until midnight, so let's just hang out here. I can read all of your stuff, and you can use one of the computers and look at mine."

"Sounds fine to me." Stitch said. He jumped over to one of the computers that wasn't working, and started exploring the files. He looked them over one by one, until he came to one that looked interesting: Field Notes. He opened it up, and started to read.

_11/14/99 Project Thames is approaching readiness. I have decided to do a few field tests, just to make sure the he works within the parameters I have set. Hopefully, I will not have to remake him again._

_Later: So far, Thames is performing perfectly. His intelligence is higher then even I suspected though, which could prove to be of slight issue later on. However, his strength, dexterity, and stealth all work perfectly. I just need to make sure that he will follow my every order._

Stitch continued reading through it, quite intrigued by this. He read several more entries, before arriving at the last one.

_1/12/01 I have decided to scrap Project Thames. It turns out that his intelligence was far to superior, and he attempted to overthrow me. I managed to stop him, barely, and now must take him apart. Another failure… but I am getting closer to my goal. This is the last entry for my notes. Next time, I will not fail._

The journal stopped, but it left Stitch hungry for more. _01, that was five years ago_! He thought. He closed thee notes, and searched through the files until he found the one he was looking for: Project Thames.

_Project Thames:_

_This will be my second attempt to create the perfect assassin. The last one failed as a result of inferior strength. This time, it will be perfect. He will have the same characteristics of his predecessor, making it quicker. However, I shall completely scrap the other programming and redo the whole thing myself. This will require several long days of work, but in the end, I will have my tool._

The rest of the file appeared to be corrupted, so Stitch turned to Seras. "Hey Seras, what's the rest of the stuff on Project Thames?" He asked.

Seras sighed. "Project Thames was my attempt to create the perfect accomplice: one who could kill those that the world needed to be rid of, and leave absolutely no trace. It's predecessor, Project Alure, was far too weak, so I redid the programming. When I did, I accidentally increased his intelligence too much, and he eventually turned on me and attempted to kill me."

"So, what came after Thames?" Stitch asked.

"I decided to continue the line, but stopped at the assassination. I decided to make the perfect fighter, someone who could kick ass, and still blend in with civilization."

"What was it called?" Stitch asked.

Seras looked down. "Project Matthew."

Stitch's jaw dropped, and he looked at her completely surprised. "You mean, your brother…"

Seras shook her head. "My real brother died of pneumonia almost ten years ago. I made a new one that looked exactly like him to take his place. I made him the ultimate fighter, my best one yet. His intelligence may not be very high, but I refused to remake this one."

Stitch nodded. "So, how long have you been doing genetic tests?"

"Since 1980. I was looking through the files of the CIA, and found that they were attempting to make the perfect assassin; I set out to beat them. I kept an eye on them, and taught myself how to program it. They called it Project Tamhewt. Their experiment turned out about as well as mine did: it didn't. I was looking at their notes, and they made it as intelligent as you. Their mistake was to give it a conscience. It refused to kill, so they tortured it for ten years. In 92, it escaped, killing a dozen men when it did. I tried to locate it, but lost it quickly. I have tried to locate it ever since, I've kept the computer in the corner there working on it. I gave it a search pattern, anything that could be related to him, but nothing concrete. But anyway, it got me into genetic engineering, and I worked on that stuff ever since. That's basically my life story."

"Sounds like you had a lot of fun." Stitch said. "What did their experiment look like?"

"I never found out." Seras said sadly. "When I searched their records, there was never any mention. When I searched the early records, they made mentions of what they were hoping for, but I ended up tripping a tracer, so they were careful about what they wrote. I've always wanted to find out."

"Well, how about we take a look at that info, and see if we can track the thing down?"

"But… it's been years!"

Stitch smiled. "We have those years on a computer." He pointed to the computer in question. "Shall we?" Seras gave a girlish giggle, and the walked over to the computer. Stitch opened it up, and looked at Seras.

"Ok, so when I first started out, he escaped in early 92 from an underground facility in Chicago." Seras said. Stitch pulled up the file in question, and then looked back at Seras. "From there, he popped up again at the CIA base in DC."

"How do you know that?" Stitch asked.

"They put it in his file." Seras answered. Stitch pulled up the file, and looked it over.

"So, by the looks of this, he appeared to be some type of animal." Stitch said, highlighting a section of text. "So, we need to look for his movements on an animal scale…"

"Or for sightings of aliens." Seras finished. "I was searching far to broadly. Let's narrow the search." They made the necessary adjustments, and looked back at the screen.

"Anything else?" Stitch asked.

"The last time I found him was Washington, when he took out a senator. The CIA figured it out, and put it in the file." Stitch put it in, and sat back.

"So, did he continue killing, or did he go into hiding?" Stitch asked.

Seras shrugged. "Either one could be possible. I have no clue what to look for."

"We need a connection between the people he killed." Stitch said slowly. "Then we need to find that common connection with other people, and try and track his movements."

Seras thought for a moment. "Makes sense to me. Let's take a look." She glanced through the three open files. "He got rid of… six people outside his hold." Stitch typed in the names, and similarities started popping up. "We're going to be more accurate, because I had access to every computer in the US."

Stitch looked at the growing list for several minutes. "Wait, I think I see something." Stitch said, stopping the list. He clicked on one of the lines, and it lit up.

_All listed subjects have funded CIA Project Tamhewt._

Seras read the line, and nodded. "Yeah, that's definitely it. Look up more funders." Stitch typed in the search, and it came up with a list of five other names: all deceased. Stitch typed a command, and it listed the death dates in order, starting with the earliest.

"Ok, so now we can at least form a guess on where he went." Stitch said. He took all the dates and put them in order.

"Ok, so here we go. From Chicago, he went to DC, and then to Washington, Houston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Miami, and then finally at Los Angeles."

"When was that last date?" Seras asked, squinting to see the screen.

"September of 99." Stitch said.

"Sure took his time."

Stitch shrugged. "Probably not only had to find the information, but also had to plan it to make it look like an accident."

"Well, I'm further then before." Seras said, slumping back in her chair. "Do you think he used transportation that we could track?"

Stitch started typing again. "It'll take a couple of minutes, and we might get a ton of data, but I can search over the data for similarities between all the travels over plane, bus, train, anything."

Seras nodded. "I'll take it." She glanced at her watch: 11:00. "It's almost time for lunch. We'll wake the others up if they aren't awake. When we get back, we can take a look at all this." Stitch agreed, and they walked out of the room. First they woke Lilo, and then went and grabbed Letho, who had just gotten out of bed. The four of them walked down to the kitchen and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

"Hey Letho, before we start back up again, Seras and I have something to finish up. Lilo can come too if she wants." Stitch said.

Letho nodded. "Fine. Just don't take too long." The trio ran off after finishing their meal, and went to the computer.

"So, what is it that we're looking at?" Lilo asked, when they got to the computer.

"Tell you in a minute." Stitch said, as he typed on the computer. The computer beeped.

_One similarity found among searches. Target traveled by air as pet, and continued to after final killing. Targets last known location was traveled to two days prior to today. Target last traveled to Kauai, Hawaii._

Stitch's jaw dropped open. Seras nodded. "I think you'll be wanting to head home sooner then you thought." She said.

"What is this all about?" Lilo asked.

Stitch turned around. "This won't take long." He said.

Please review.


	8. Problems

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

I am starting to get swamped with homework, and am falling behind. I am truly sorry if I miss a post, but unfortunately school has to come first. But enough of my whining: to the chapter!

Chapter 8: Problems

It didn't take Stitch long to explain it to Lilo, and when he did, she got worried.

"Is there anyone there that he might be after?" She asked.

Seras shrugged. "Who knows? This computer doesn't have the most up to date info, so it won't be accurate. Besides, I think that all the major funders were already taken out."

Stitch turned back to her. "Could it be related to the prison camp or something?"

"Could be. But again, my computer wouldn't be able to tell where they were. I could try and get a fix though. I could hack the orbital satellite, and download the last dozen orbit's pictures, and have the computer attempt to find people."

"Let's do that." Stitch said.

Seras turned back to her computer and started typing rapidly. "This might take a few minutes. Go get that last computer ready to search for faces: I'm hacking the new satellite, so we should at least get an idea of who is where with it's great lens." The computer beeped, and she started racing across the board. "After I get the images, it'll take some time. I'm sure that Letho will want to talk to you about stuff." Lilo nodded, as she continued to watch Seras type. Within a few minutes, she had every image downloaded and transferred them to the other computer.

"All right, it's all here." Stitch said. "I've got the computer started. Come on Lilo, Letho wants us." They ran out the door, up the stairs, and into Letho's room, where he was waiting for them.

"What now?" Lilo asked.

Letho motioned them to sit on the bed. "Now it's time to talk about the Period." He said. They were silent for a moment, and then he started again.

"The Period is the final stage going from human to vampire. During the two to four days, the rest of your body converts. It is a painful process, and most lose sanity during that time. Because of the issue, we are going to have to… isolate you. Stitch, we are figuring out what to do for you, since it will be harder to contain you. Anyway, that's the basics of it. Really, I could go into a long, complicated explanation encompassing the… chemistry and the changes involve. But I assume that that would bore you to no end, so I won't make it so tedious. Any questions?"

"So what actually changes about us?" Stitch asked.

"The reason it is so painful, is because what's really changing are your heart, digestive system, and parts of your brain. The heart is changed to pump vampiric blood through your veins, and to create the different effects it has. The digestive system changes to be able to use blood to give the body nutrients. Parts of your brains have to change to allow you to age slower, accept nutrients from blood, and so on. As I said before, it will be quite painful, so you're in for one hell of a ride."

Lilo nodded. "I think I understand it, more or less. I mean, it's not really important to understand it, is it?"

Letho shook his head. "Not really. It's going to happen either way."

"How long until it starts?" Stitch asked.

"Probably sometime tomorrow. So, just to be safe, we are going to put you into the chambers before we go to bed. You will both change around the same time, because I pumped a little more into Stitch then you, Lilo. Not only that, but Stitch is smaller then you are, so it doesn't have to travel as far or in as great a quantity."

Lilo nodded. "Ok." She glanced at the clock, which read 1:00 AM. "So we have six hours until we have to be in there." She stated. "Dinner will be when?"

"Five-thirty give or take." Letho answered. "That gives you a little over four hours to hang out now, and then an hour or so until we have to put you into…" His voice trailed.

"Solitary confinement?" Stitch asked.

Letho laughed. "I guess you could call it that. Not quite what I would have said, but it works. Now, run along and have some fun; you're in for a hell of a couple of days." As they ran out the door, he spread himself across the bed. He was starting to drift off to sleep, when his phone rang. He looked at the caller, and groaned. "Why now?" He hesitated, and then flipped it open. "Letho here."  
"Letho, this is Cobra. We need to talk."

Lilo and Stitch made their way back downstairs to Seras' room, where she and Matthew were sitting, looking over the various computers.

"Hey guys!" Seras called. "You're data is almost done, it should only take another hour at most. We've been looking over the data from the satellite, if you want to come and take a look. We looked specifically at Kauai first, since that's where he is." They walked over to the computer and took a look at the file pulled up.

_Roswell, C._

_Secondary Head of CIA – 1973_

_Current Employment – Social Worker_

_Location – Kauai, Hawaii_

_Clearance Level – Black_

_Last Missions – 2000, undercover alien recovery_

_ 1973, saved earth from alien destruction_

_Last Access Card Use – CIA Headquarters, 1990_

_Current Mission – None_

_Individual is also cleared for all information in security file Vector Alpha._

_Individual is to be kept from Project Tamhewt._

"That's as far as we got." Matthew called from another computer.

"We don't have a photo yet." Seras said. "Does the name give you anything?"  
Lilo recognized the name from somewhere, but where?

**Flashback**

"Aliens are all about rules." Cobra said.

The Grand Council Woman looked at him. "You look familiar."

"CIA, Roswell, 1973."

"Ah yes, you had hair then."

**End Flashback**

"Cobra!" Lilo said. "What did he do, though?"

Seras shrugged. "I'll look it up. It just says that he should be kept out of it. As for the file it mentions, I have Matt working on it right now." Lilo walked over to Matt, while Stitch stayed by Seras.

Matt spoke up. "I have the file, but it's heavily encrypted, it'll take a couple of minutes."

"I'm going through the Tamhewt file for any mention of Cobra's name. It could take a few minutes though." Seras called back. They waited in silence for a few minutes, before Seras spoke again. "I think I might have it!" Lilo and Matt came over, leaving their computer to decrypt.

"Ok, so they originally hired him for guarding and studying the experiment. But, according to the notes they kept, they had to take him off the case. Apparently, he argued against the way they were treating it, and when they refused to change their approach, he attempted to break it out. However, they were ready for his attempt and stopped him. He was taken off the project, and was assigned to Kauai. He has top security clearance, but can't access anything relating to Tamhewt."

Lilo nodded. "So, maybe he isn't there for revenge, but to… thank him or something." She said, voice heavy with uncertainty. The computer that Matt had been on started beeping, and everyone moved over there, Matt taking the chair.

"Ok, it's finished decrypting the file." He pulled it up. "File Vector Alpha. It requires a level Black security, and needs to be approved by the CIA head." He said, scrolling down the file. "Oh my god."

"What is it?" Stitch asked.

"It's a file outlining… us. It's all information about vampires; our powers, weaknesses, where we live, what we drink, and locations on all of the council members." His voice trailed off.

"What's the council?" Lilo asked.

"The Council of Vampires." Seras said. "I would go more in-depth, but it might get a little complicated. But all this information is really exact: I would say that they have several people in our community spying on us."

"What makes you think that?" Lilo asked.

"Well, most of this information they could have gotten off of anyone. However, especially the locations and details on our council, they need someone inside telling them about that; and it would have to be someone higher up." Sears sat back in the chair, and sighed. "Well, that's all the info we have right now on it. But I think that we should tell this to Letho at some point."

Stitch nodded. "Yeah, if we're going to go back and see if Cobra is ok, then we need to tell him why we want to go. But he won't let us go anywhere until after the Period. We'll have to wait a couple of days."

"Stitch is right." Lilo said. "I mean, we can tell him now, or you can tell him while we're changing, but we won't be able to do anything until after the Period. Then again, he might not let us go. He wants us to go see the Council before we go anywhere, so it could still be a while until we go down there."

Seras thought about it for a minute. "We'll talk to him about it tomorrow. He won't leave you here, and dad won't go, so he'll wait until you get out, and he'll probably take you with him, since you know the land and stuff. Not only that, but you know the people."

"But that could be the issue." Stitch said. "If they're looking for us, bringing us could cause issues more then anything."

"Yeah, all your cousins might find you." Seras said. Lilo groaned and dropped her head.

"What's wrong Lilo?" Stitch asked.

Lilo looked up at him. "If they're looking for us, Jumba's going to make use the one experiment that could find us, no matter where we are."

Stitch's eyes grew wide. "Finder." He saw the looks Seras and Matt were giving them. "Finder, experiment 158, designed to find anything; he was even equipped with the ability to fly so he could track any target needed."

"I can see how that would cause some issues." Seras said. They were silent for a moment. "Then there's no doubt about it: you have to go back to cover your tracks, and have the experiments cover for you."

"Letho won't like it." Lilo said.

"I don't care, really." Stitch said. "Seras is right: we have to have them help us out. If we don't, they'll end up finding us, and then we have far bigger issues. Especially if he brings in a ton of the stronger boys." There was a knock on the door, and it opened to reveal Letho.

"Guys, we have some serious problems." Letho said.

Stitch turned to him. "I think with our problems combined, were really up shit creak."

Lilo whacked him on the back of the head. "Don't swear; it's not good for you." Letho walked in, closed the door behind him, and sat down with the group.

"So, I'll talk first and then you tell me what you have." Letho said. Those still standing sat down, and Letho started speaking again. "I just got a call from Cobra Bubbles. I'm not sure if you all know, but several government societies around the world, mainly the CIA and MI-5, know of our existence. Some have more data about us then others, but those are the two main ones. Cobra is one of the major people involved in helping us out when we have some… encounters with normal people. Well, when you disappeared, even before he saw the message you left me, he was digging up my number and location. He finally called me, and he's pretty sure that I'm involved. He asked a lot of questions, and he suspects me. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to hide our movements long enough that he'll just leave us alone."

Lilo shook her head. "It won't work. One of Stitch's cousins was designed to find lost or missing objects. My guess is that Cobra will use him to try and find us. Once he can track us, he'll send some of the stronger experiments after us. Stitch could hold a couple off, but not a lot of them at once."

Letho sighed. "We need to remedy this situation quickly. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to cover this up. However, we at least need to wait until after the Period, otherwise we have issues." He fell silent for a moment. "Do you guys have any ideas on how we can cover this up?"

After a moment, Stitch spoke up. "Well, we obviously need to have Finder in the loop. Other then that, I suggest we use Reuben to give us info. He's as smart as I am, so he can send us info without being caught. Since we don't want Cobra after us, we'll have to make it quick. We'll talk to Finder first, so that it'll be harder to get caught. Then I'll talk to Rueben, though I'll have to call him. My guess is that he and Gantu will be called back to help find us, along with someone from the Galactic Council."

Seras whistled. "Wow, sounds like it'll quite a search party out for you guys. You sure have a lot of friends."

"Yeah, what a pain in the ass." Letho said. "So, we'll have to wait until after the Period, and then we'll have to see the Council; that should only take a day or two, and then we'll head back down to Kauai. If you need me, I'll be helping Vex cook some dinner." He stood up and walked out of the room.

"He's not happy, is he?" Lilo asked.

Matt shook his head. "As far as I know, he hates taking on wards simply because of having to cover the stuff up. He's seen some hard ones to cover up, but I don't think he's had to deal with aliens and space ships before." Lilo had wandered into the back of the room, and was now leaning against the wall, breathing hard, and extremely pale.

"Yeah, we've thrown him one heck of a loop." Stitch said. "I feel sorry for him, but there isn't a lot we can do now." He turned and saw Lilo, and rushed over to her. "Are you ok?"

Lilo shook her head. "My head is killing me, and I can barely stand up by myself." She said.

"Let's take you to Vex and Letho." Stitch said, picking her up like a groom would a bride, and carrying her out of the room. They went up the stairs and into the kitchen, where Letho and Vex were. "Something's wrong with Lilo." Stitch said as they came in. Letho took one look at her and nodded.

"It had started." He said.

Vex ushered the trio out the door. "We have the rooms prepared. Let's get going." They went deep down, a level or two under Seras' room, where there were two doors. Vex took Lilo from Stitch, and carried her in one room. Stitch got a glance inside, and saw that the entire room was white and padded. Before he could get a better look, Letho ushered him into the other room.

"Vex had made some improvements to this room." He said. "Once I close and lock the door, the gravity in the room with increase drastically, making it unable for you to move until we unlock it. I wish we didn't have to do this, but during the Period, you could possibly destroy a lot." Letho offered his hand, and Stitch shook it. "I'll see you in a few days. Until then." He closed the door, and Stitch heard the lock click. Immediately, Stitch was dragged to the floor. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get up. He sighed, and closed his eyes.

"I hope you'll be ok, Lilo." He whispered.

Well, this will be it for the Period. Not much else really goes on that will be interesting. I'm sorry that this is coming late, but physics is swamping me with homework. Please review!


	9. Kauai

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Well, with all this homework I have to do, I am running low on time to type. I will post when I can, just don't get angry please.

Chapter 9: Kauai

Cobra sighed as he hung up the phone. When Lilo had disappeared the other day along with Stitch, he hadn't thought much of it. She had always been a loner, heading out whenever she wanted. Sometimes it was to clear her head, sometimes to go and look around the island, which she had become very familiar with on her many adventures with experiment catching. Lately, she had been taking Stitch many places with her. They had become quite close over the years. However, when Jumba showed him the message that Stitch had left, he started getting worried. He had waited a day, just incase they had been kidding, and it was one of their childish games they still played. When they didn't show up later, he had decided to call his acquaintance in the vampire field. They had met, even were the first to make official contact and peace, between the vampires and humans. Letho had told him that he didn't know, but Cobra had been around him long enough, and knew he was lying. He sat down on the couch and sighed. Others, especially the Grand Council Woman and the other experiments, would start wondering where she and Stitch were. It wouldn't take them long to figure out that she wasn't there, and that he had no idea where she was. It also wasn't like he could just tell them all that she had been taken by a vampire. First, he had no proof that they had, but also, who would believe him? He heard someone coming down the hall, and glanced up: it was Jumba.

"Any word on little girl or 626?" Jumba asked, sitting next to him.

Cobra shook his head. "Not a peep."

"Is what they said true? About vampires and all?" He asked.

Cobra nodded. "Yes, it is. It's a long, complicated story, but it is true." Cobra stood up. "I'm going to go make a few calls to a few colleagues of mine. If you don't mind, could you go over that video again? See if there's any clue as to where they're going?"

Jumba nodded. "Sure, I will be getting right on it." They both walked out the door: Cobra headed for his office, while Jumba headed up to the ship. When he got there, he sat down in his chair before his super computer, and powered it up. When it was ready, he played the message. Stitch appeared on the screen.

"Jumba, I assume you will be the one watching this, so I'll just speak Turan since it'll go faster. A lot has happened in the past few days, a lot more then I can say here, in case this falls into the wrong hands by some weird fluke of fate. Yesterday, I was approached by man named Letho. As I soon found out, he was a vampire. I understand if you don't believe me, but it's true. The only person I can think of who would know about them is Cobra. He asked me to help save them from probably complete destruction. I decided to ask Lilo to come with me, and she agreed. We didn't take much with us, so you shouldn't miss anything. Look, I wish I could talk longer, but we have to get going. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope to see you as soon as I can." Stitch sighed. "I really wish I didn't have to go, but I do. As I said, I can't say anymore here, just in case. Well, I'll see you." Stitch smiled, and the message ended. Jumba sat back, and opened up another file.

He read through it: it was a list of the items he and Cobra had found were gone from the house. There wasn't anything important, except for the vault. He had put in a back door, in case he had needed to get in. When he learned that Lilo had left, he had checked the vault, and found it empty. He had looked over the computer records, and found that the entire memory had been copied: no doubt Stitch's work. He was sure that they had no idea what the vial did yet, but they would eventually. _I wonder how Lilo will react when she is finding out_. He thought, smiling. He played the message once more, even though he had seen it many times already. Nothing about where they were going. If Lilo had left this alone, he would have thought that it was one of her interesting games. However, Stitch wouldn't do this without a real reason. The communicator beeped, letting him know that someone was calling him. He turned it on, facing Cobra.

"I don't suppose you found anything." Cobra said. Jumba shook his head. "Well, she was supposed to give her monthly report about the experiments to the Grand Council Woman. I assume that if she doesn't give it, the Grand Council Woman will start to wonder."

"Why not just tell her truth?" Jumba asked.

"It's not that easy. As far as I know, and I know quite a bit, the Grand Council Woman insisted on Lilo being around to watch the experiments. If Lilo isn't around, and neither is Stitch, to watch them, she may… take measures, to insure the experiments don't do anything."

"But they won't." Jumba said.

"I know! But she has to make sure that her back is covered, or things might get out of hand up in politics. You may not know this, but her decision to let Lilo and Stitch catch the experiments and turn them good, didn't go over too well with the whole council. Many questioned her decision, and there is a pocket of them that still do. In fact, they have tried several times to have her either destroy or relocate all the experiments. If they discover that Lilo and Stitch are missing, this could be the thing that rallies them support for that cause."

Jumba groaned. "We need to be finding little girl and 626 soon then." He thought for a moment. "I know! If we used Experiment 158, he could find them in no time at all."

Cobra nodded. "Using Finder is a great idea. Since he can fly, we could equip him with a tracking device, and follow him as he searches for them. The chance of the plan failing is infinitesimal. And it's the fastest way to find them."

Jumba nodded. "I will track down 158. We will have to fill him in on some of the details, but he will be helping us. So, what about your contact?"

Cobra sighed. "I'm pretty sure that he's involved in this. He said he had no clue, but I can tell when people tell the truth, and he defiantly wasn't. Although, how much he actually knows is what I don't know. If I had to make a guess, I would say he's up to his eyebrows in this mess. I'll talk to him again tonight, and this time I'll be a little more forceful with him."

"Ok. I will get 158, and you do fancy CIA mess. Oh, and tell Council Woman that little girl and 626 are… on vacation, and will call her next week instead. Will buy some time for us, at least. If we haven't found her in a week, then we have bigger issues then politics of council people."

"Agreed." Cobra said. "Ok, I'll contact you at noon, and we'll see where we are. Take one of your tracker chips with you, and send him after Lilo right away. Just make sure he doesn't tell any of the other experiment. And make sure Nosy isn't anywhere near you!" The communication ended, and Jumba leaned back in his chair.

"Why did you do this little girl? Especially you 626? What could be so important to the two of you?"

**Noon**

"So, how did it go?" Jumba asked Cobra.

Cobra sighed. "Well, it was mixed. The Council Woman accepted my story, so she expects to hear from Lilo next week, 9AM sharp. That gives us a week to find them. As I said before, I'll call my contact tonight. What about you?"

"I had to tell 158 what we knew about little girl, 626, and crazy vampire things, but he is doing it. I gave him the tracking device, and am getting clear reading from it. We can follow it whenever you is ready."

"We can start following him later. We need to give him time to look, but we have to make sure we're with him when he finally tracks them down."

"What do we do in the mean time?" Jumba asked.

"Not much we can do until tonight. Just stay there, and if anyone calls for Lilo, tell them that she's out; especially if Nani calls. If she knows the truth, she's going to go nuts." Jumba nodded, and then terminated the connection. He sat back in the chair, and thought about the situation. _How can I call 626_? He thought. He reopened his file list of the things that Stitch and Lilo took, and studied it once more. He looked through the short list, and saw that Stitch had indeed grabbed a communicator. He opened another file, and started pouring through it. It contained the frequency numbers of all his communicators, and the codes needed for a secure transmission. Jumba matched the one Stitch had, and was about to call, but stopped.

"I need to be double checking that it can't be tracked." He said to himself. He snapped his fingers. "Use satellites!" He said. Opening up a window, he tracked the satellites in orbit around Earth. He knew a certain technique used by government groups to spread word quickly, and it was impossible to trace. However, he had to wait until a transmission was going through it, and then throw his in with it. He could still make the message now; though, and then send it out later. He activated the ships communicator, and set it to record.

"626, I hope you is getting this. I know you were not able to say much here, but I would really be liking an explanation. If you were not happy, why not just say something? However, CIA man is thinking that is work of vampires. I am not sure if his head is being screwed on tight, but I believe that I deserve an answer. Really, I just hope that you and little girl are ok for time being. I know you two were developing feelings for each other. Oh, that reminds me: when you have chance, open up information on Serum 626.2. Little girl took it along, and I believe that if you want relationship to go anywhere, you will find it most interesting. If you is wishing to call me back, use satellite A24, and make sure you bounce it with other calls to mask it. Since you have all data, make sure you use correct frequency to make call secure. Please to be calling me soon." He ended the recording and groaned. "I hope you know what you are doing 626, because I sure don't."

Pleakly came walking in. "I hope you plan on cleaning up at some point soon." Jumba didn't respond, so Pleakly repeated his statement. Still not getting an answer, he slapped Jumba in the back of the head. Jumba flinched and turned to him.

"What is you wanting?" Jumba asked.

"I was wondering if you were going to clean up soon." Pleakly said.

"Why would I want to clean up?"

"I just got a call from Nani and David. They're going to be back here in three or four days, and I would like the house cleaned up." Jumba turned pale, and restarted the communicator.

"Maybe in few moments. I have important phone call to make first." Pleakly nodded, and headed back to the house. Jumba dialed Cobra, and in a moment, they were talking again.

"So, Nani's coming back soon?" Cobra asked. Jumba's reply was a simple nod. "This just got a whole lot more difficult. How far away is Gantu's ship?"

Jumba hit a few keys. "He could get here in day or two. You want him to join search, I assume?"

Cobra nodded. "We still need to keep the Council Woman out of this, but we need all the hands possible to look for them." Cobra sighed, and took his sunglasses off. "I'll be there in an hour. When I get there, we have to head out after Finder. Make sure you call Gantu and get him here as soon as you can. This is the biggest race against time I've ever seen." Cobra turned around, and swore loudly, drawing his gun. "And I think it just got a lot bigger. Be there soon!" Before another word was spoken, the communication was terminated.

I know it's a little short, but I am short on time. Please read and review.


	10. Just Another Day

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 10: Just Another Day

In the dark room, a loud beeping was heard. It continued until Seras rolled over and turned the alarm off. Continuing with the roll, she got off the bed, and stood up. She noticed her hair was hanging straight, and she used her hands to put it back into untidiness. She went straight to her computers and woke them all up from sleep mode. She glanced over each of them, making sure nothing interesting had happened during the day. After she checked them, she walked out of the room, and put an ear to Matt's door: as usual, his alarm was going off, and he was sleeping. She opened the door, turned off the alarm, and flipped his bed over, effectively waking him up.

"Do you have to do that _every_ morning?" He grumbled, getting off the floor.

"Only every morning that you don't wake up when you're supposed to." She replied with a smile. She helped him get his bed back the way it was supposed to be, and they walked off to the kitchen. Letho had decided to help out while he was there, and had made them a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and sausages.

"I still don't see why you eat three meals a day." He grumbled as he served them. "You really don't need to."

Seras shrugged. "So? It all tastes so good, that I wouldn't want to miss it."

"Do you two need to feed soon?"

Matt shook his head. "Nah, we did that two days ago. Shouldn't need to do it for another two or three."

"So, how long until Lilo and Stitch can come out?" Seras asked.

"It should be tomorrow, probably midnight or so." Vexen answered as he walked in. He looked at the breakfast, and then at Letho. "I told you that you didn't need to help out."

"I know. But I like to feel like I'm doing something." Letho said, sitting at in a chair. "Besides, you have a job, and your wife… is where?"

"She's out swimming in the lake." He said. "She always swims first thing when she wakes up. And as for my job, it's Saturday; I don't have to go in today or tomorrow." Letho's phone rang, and he looked down at it, sighing heavily as he saw the caller id.

"I think he's catching on." Letho said, standing up to leave. "I'll take it in my room." The moment he turned the corner and they could no longer hear his steps, Seras and Matt ran down to the computer room, leaving Vexen more then slightly confused.

When they got to the room, Seras jumped on one of the computers, and started racing across the keyboard with her fingers. "Got the call." She said, turning up the sound.

"Hey Cobra. How's it going?" Letho asked.

"Letho, I think you're lying to me about Lilo and Stitch." Cobra said. "You never were a good liar."

"Cobra, I swear I have absolutely no idea where, or even _who_, those two are. I think you're losing your touch old man."

"I didn't call to have a battle of words Leth. I am going to give you one last chance to give Lilo and Stitch back, before I have to start using force."

"Cobra, you know as well as I do that that is an empty threat. You have no way of finding me if I don't want to be found. And I'd hate to think that our friendship has come to this, threats of violence."

"You don't understand the importance this girl has on to many important people. They won't take no for an answer."

Letho sighed. "Even if I did have her, then you know I would never have forced her to come; it would have been her own choice."

"I'm not so sure." Both sides were quiet for a moment. "Letho, if you don't give them back, I will hunt you down myself, and use any means necessary to bring them back."

"Cobra, I don't have them." Letho said firmly.

"We'll see." The connection terminated, and Seras turned to look at Matt.

"This, is not good." She said. Matt nodded his agreement. Seras turned back to the computer, and started typing again.

"What're you doing now?"

"Well, Cobra's CIA, right?" Matt nodded. "So then his phone will have a GPS tracker as a security device. I know the number now, so all I have to do is scan the various frequencies and find out which one he's using."

"Then we'll know right where he is!" Matt exclaimed. They waited several minutes while the computer went through various databases and scanned various frequencies. Eventually, a frequency number appeared on the screen. It then switched to a giant map of the Earth, and slowly zoomed in, until it you could only see a city on the screen. When it did, a red dot appeared in the center.

"Well?" Said a voice behind them. Both of them jumped and swung around, to see Letho standing there, arms crossed against his chest.

"What?"

"Knowing you, I figured you'd listen in." He said. "So I decided to drop by."

Seras pointed to the computer. "Well, I scanned for his phone so I could track his location. Right now, he's still on Kauai. But knowing what kind of connections he has, he could be here in a couple hours."

Letho sighed. "That is the issue. However, if we can keep tabs on him, we shouldn't have an issue of having a bit of warning before he comes. Besides, he has no idea where I am. He'll need to make a few other calls before he can figure it out, and I have a few people who'll steer him wrong. We'll be safe, at least for a few days."

"Well, if you two will excuse me, I have some reading to do." Seras said, going over to another computer.

"How does Vexen pay for the electric bill? With all this, it's got to be through the roof!" Letho said.

Seras laughed. "I'm drawing power directly from the plant, instead of a generator. As far as they're concerned, this house goes by on minimal power; at least for one this size."

Letho walked up and looked over her shoulder. "What's this you're reading, anyway?"

"It's Jumba's journals. Jumba's one of Lilo's friends. He's a genius who created a ton of genetic experiments to cause havoc and destruction. Over the course of three years, Lilo and Stitch were able to catch them all, and teach them to use their powers for good."

Letho shrugged. "Whatever." He and Matt left Seras to read alone. She spent several hours pouring through the journal, finding nothing really of interest. The experiments were kind of cool, but she was looking more for lab notes, which she couldn't find. She was about to stop when she came across a section labeled Molecular Change. _Something of interest_. She thought. She accessed the file, and started reading it.

_Molecular change is an interesting idea. I have studied it without progress for several years now, in an attempt to create my dream formula, which would be my greatest creation; even better then 626. Recently, a group of scientist discovered a possibility on how to do this safely. I hacked their computers and stole their data, and analyzed it myself. It might just work! So, I started on a new project, which I called Experiment X. If it works successfully, I will have a new, completely interesting band of new experiments, and who knows what will happen from there. Further information is in file labeled Exp. X. However, I have restricted access to only 626 and myself. I do not want anyone else to be knowing about it until I am sure about my assumptions on his current relationship. Ah, how I have watched that grow from an innocent friendship, into what I believe is something much deeper_.

Seras checked, and that was the last journal entry Jumba had made. She attempted to access the file that had been mentioned, but she couldn't get in. It didn't ask for a password, DNA, or anything: it just refused to let her in. She checked the file from every angle she could think of, but nothing would let her through.

"Guess this mystery will have to wait for him." She said to herself. She glanced at the time, and decided that it was time for lunch. She glanced over the files, looking for anything else that might have been interesting. Nothing extraordinary jumped out at her, so she got up and went up to the kitchen to find something. She looked around the cupboards, not really seeing anything of interest. Since they didn't need to eat food anymore, she never ate if she didn't see anything special. Moving on to the fridge, she sorted through the assorted food, and finally decided to just grab a soda. She gulped it down, and then decided to head to the gym, where her brother would undoubtedly be working out.

She took the stairs up a floor, and went through a set of double doors. As she had guessed, her brother was busy lifting weights in one corner of the room. She went off to her corner of the room, where sat an assortment of sudoku, crosswords and computers. Matt glanced over as she started a 500-card game of memory on the computer.

"How is that a workout?" He asked.

Seras smiled. "You work your muscles, I work my mind. It's just how it works between us. Did dad work out yet?"

"Yeah, he was up here earlier. Haven't seen mom yet. She probably went to the library again. I still can't believe their open all night."

"Tell me about it. As if she already doesn't have enough to read." They continued in silence for several minutes, until the door creaked open and Maggie walked in.

"Hey guys!" She said brightly. Going to a chair, she sat down, pulled out a book, and started to read.

"Manga again?" Seras asked, turning around in her chair. Maggie nodded, pouring over the pages. "How do you read that?!" Seras exclaimed. "It's right… left not… left… IT ISN'T NATURAL!!!!"

Maggie looked at the floor thoughtfully for a moment, before her head popped back up. "Of course it isn't!" She said cheerfully. "That's why I like doing it!"

Seras turned off the computer and opened the door to leave. "Everyone in a ten foot radius loses IQ when those are open, you know." However, Maggie was too into her book to hear what she said. Seras shut the door behind her and left. She had tried reading one of those books once, and she had ended up setting it on fire, and then spamming every website that had anything to do with it or any other manga.

She wandered around the house for a bit, not really sure what to do. She was interested in talking to Lilo and Stitch about their lives, and also about that secured file. Unfortunately, they were both in the Period, and she wouldn't be able to talk to either of them for a day or so. She thought about heading down to her lab, and after a little more consideration, she did, mainly to see where Cobra was at the moment, in case he had somehow gotten nearby. She made in down there quickly, woke the computer from sleep mode, and put in her password. As the screen came to life, she quickly reacquired Cobra's position. When it got to his current location, she saw that he was over the Pacific Ocean. Judging by the way that his location had moved around, mainly around Hawaii, she guessed that he was still looking for her around there. For right now, he wasn't an issue, though she would have to keep an eye on the situation, just to make sure. She wondered what to do next, and decided to check out what Lilo and Stitch had brought along with them. She went up to their room, and after making sure no one was around, slipped in and closed the door behind her.

She glanced around, and put the two packs in the room on one bed. She picked one up, a small blue backpack, and started digging through it. Nothing special from what she could tell. Apart from the memory block, which was sitting downstairs, he had brought some recipes, probably his favorite foods, some shorts _Why does he wear shorts_?, and a book. She glanced at the title: The Ugly Duckling. She was surprised to find such a childish book among Stitch's things, so she put it away, intent on asking him later. In one of the side pockets was what looked like a cell phone, but she figured it was alien technology, probably capable of reaching light-years away. She put all the stuff back in, and moved on to the yellow backpack. There wasn't much there either: a camera, an Elvis record, a weird looking doll, and two pictures. She pulled out the pictures and looked at them. One of them was of probably every single experiment she had caught, and her friends. The other one looked like her family: her mom, dad, sister, and Stitch, who had been put in whenever the photo had been burned. She looked at the other picture, but didn't see her parents.

_I wonder what happened to them_. Seras thought. She glanced in the side pocket, and found a vial. On the stopper was a large X. _Experiment X_? Seras thought, putting two and two together. She slipped it into her pocket, figuring she could scan it and put it back before Lilo and Stitch came out. She put the rest of the stuff back, and hurried down to her lab. First, she opened the computer, and scanned Lilo's family history until she found her parents…

_Were killed in a fatal car accident, when they lost control of their vehicle during one of the worst thunderstorms ever to hit Kauai. They died instantly when they slid at high velocity, estimated 90 km/h, into a rock face._ Seras stopped reading there; mostly because she had read enough, but also because all that was left was the autopsy report.

"So, you lost your parents. No wonder you grew up so unique." Seras muttered to herself. She put the computer to sleep, and walked over to one of her more unique machines: a mass spectrometer. She had gotten this beauty from a friend that owed her father a ton of favors, and this had cleared those out completely. She put the vial in, and scanned the contents.

"Scan complete. Processing. Processing will take an estimated 2.5 hours to complete." The computer voice said. Seras smiled and sat on the floor in front of it.

"I can wait."


	11. Prey

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Ok, I decided to move/save this for the night of all nights: All Hallows Eve. If possible, I will post another chapter on this glorious night. I hope you enjoy my holiday treat.

Chapter 11: Prey

Lilo moaned, and shifted on the floor. She opened her eyes, but nothing changed. She soon realized that, wherever she was, was pitch black. Her entire body was sore, and she felt dizzy and weak. She sat up, only to lie back down as her head spun even more. After a minute, she sat up again, this time more slowly. She turned to get on her hands and knees, and started crawling around, exploring her surroundings.

After a few minutes, she figured that she was in a small room. From the feel of it, it was completely padded. It made it nice and soft, though. She couldn't find anything else in the room, and decided to sit against a wall. She let her mind wander, and tried to figure out how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was going into a room; probably this room. Going back over the past few days, she assumed that the reason she was in here was because she had gone through the Period. But what she was supposed to do now, she had no clue. She hadn't found a way out of the room in her search, so she assumed that she had to be let out. How she was supposed to let them know, though, she had no clue. She sat there for a while longer, before she heard a click on the far wall. Something, probably a door, opened, and flooded the room with light. She closed her eyes and averted them from the light, which almost seemed to burn after her long stay in the darkness.

"Who's there?" She asked.

"It's only me Lilo." Vexen said. It took Lilo's eyes a minute to adjust to where she could open them slightly to see.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"This is the room we put you in for the Period." He replied, gesturing the room. "Not the most comfortable of accommodations, but necessary to keep you safe from harm." He gently picked her up. "Let's get you to a couch, and I'll get you some blood to drink."

Lilo felt herself carried for a few minutes, before she was set down. With her eyes adjusted again to the light, she looked around, and saw she was now on a couch. It was orange, which happened to be her favorite color. She looked around, but didn't see much else of interest. She heard someone else come into the room, and she turned to see who it was.

"Stitch!" She yelled, grabbing him from Letho's hands. Letho had quite a bit he wanted to tell them, but decided to wait for now.

"Are you ok Stitch?" Lilo asked, letting him go.

"Just tired." He answered, sitting next to her. "And sore. How about you?'

"The same. So, we're officially vampires, huh?"

Stitch shrugged. "I guess so."

"Blood!" Vexen called, coming back in. "And, since you two could probably use something warm, I made you both a cup of hot chocolate."

Lilo smiled. "Thanks." She picked up the two flasks on the tray he had, and handed on to Stitch.

"Bottoms up." He said. Lilo opened it, and let the cool liquid flow down her throat; she instantly felt rejuvenated. When she finished it, she picked up one of the mugs of hot chocolate; Stitch did the same.

"So, anything happen while we were out?" Lilo asked.

"Well, Seras said we needed to go down and see her. That was about half an hour ago, so we should head down." Bringing their drinks with them, Lilo and Stitch followed Vexen and Letho downstairs.

"Hey guys, good to see you again!" Seras said. Matt, who was standing in the corner, just waved.

"You have something for us?" Vexen asked.

"Yes I do." Seras said, turning to her computer. "Some for now, some for later."

"Just talk, please. No riddles today." Letho said.

"Fine. For those just joining us, I was able to find a way to trace Cobra Bubbles cell phone. I have been monitoring his location, and up until now, he has been hanging around Kauai, or other parts of Hawaii. However, this morning, around noon, he left. I tried to figure out where he was going, and found a split in the signal. Judging by the looks of it, he's following something with a tracker on it."

"What is he following?"

"Well, I'll show you in a minute." Seras said. "The satellite is still clearing up the picture and stuff. I have also been monitoring his phone calls, and it appears that he has called several of the higher members in the vampire community. I haven't heard everything, but I've gathered enough to know that he is really looking for us. I mean, hardcore searching. He's searching in vampire, CIA, FBI, MI-5, and all those other members of the alphabet. He may not find us today, but I would guess that we have three days at most before he finds us."

"We'll be in vampire territory by then." Letho assured everyone.

"Well, that's good, because according to his flight plan," Seras brought up a list, "he brought along a good assortment of heavy weaponry. My guess is he's planning to take them back by any means possible."

"I wonder why he wants us back so badly." Lilo said. "He never seemed to care about us that much before."

"I wouldn't know." Seras said. "But also, I was making sure to follow the CIA Project Tamhewt around, and he's following Cobra. I got a satellite picture of him," Seras brought it up, "but he has a cloak on, and so there isn't much we can tell, other then he's on Cobra's tail."

"Isn't there anything we can do about that?" Lilo asked.

Letho shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It doesn't look like we can stop them from finding us right now, so we'll have to leave tomorrow just after sunset. Once we're in vampire land, they won't be able to follow us."

"But, what if this… Tamhewt hurts Cobra?" Lilo asked.

"There isn't much you could do." Seras said. "If it wanted to, it could kill all of you without too much of a thought. So, if it really wants to get rid of Cobra, there isn't much you could do about it."

Lilo sighed. "I guess you're right. So, is there anything else you have to tell us?"

Seras thought for a moment. "Nope, not really. I think I covered everything that you guys really need to know. If there is a serious change in the situation, I'll let you all know." Everyone got up to leave. "Hey Lilo, could I see you and Stitch for a moment? Alone?" Everyone else glanced around, but left them alone.

"You have something?" Stitch asked.

Seras nodded. "Yeah, I do. As I said before, I was checking in on his calls, and he called someone called..." she looked at the screen, "Grand Council Woman. Who is she?"

"Why?"

"Because he called and told her that you were on vacation for a week, and would get back to her. Any particular reason?"

Lilo thought for a moment. "Yeah, actually there is. Every month I have to give her an update on how the experiments are doing. She doesn't really care, but the rest of the council insisted. They've been trying to get rid of them for ages, but the Grand Council Woman said they couldn't. In order to get them to partly cooperate, we had to agree to monthly reports. If I miss one, I'm sure that there are some who will move to dispose of the experiments, since I'm not around to watch them."

"Can you call her now?" Seras asked.

Lilo shook her head. "I have to use a special line. Besides, I have a week until she needs the call. We'll figure something out by then."

"That's good. I've also been tracking your sister and your new brother in law."

"You mean you've been stalking Nani and David?" Lilo asked.

"Not stalking! Watching." Seras corrected. "I was watching them so I could track them when _they_ started looking for you. They called to check up on you, and Cobra told them that you were off with a couple of the experiments, and wouldn't be back for a few days."

"He's trying to buy some time before he has to tell everyone what really happened." Stitch said. "It's going to wreak havoc later, but it's better for him now."

"His only hope for this not to come crashing down on him is to find us." Lilo reasoned. "And since that isn't going to happen, he's going to be in some deep blitznak."

Seras tossed something at Stitch: the communicator he had. "This started beeping the other day." She said. "I didn't want to look at it in case it was personal." Stitch flipped it open, went over to the corner, and watched the message.

"Wonder who called." Lilo said.

"I guess we'll have to wait to find out." Seras replied. After another minute, Stitch came back.

"Who was it?" Lilo asked.

"Jumba." Stitch said. "He really wants an explanation for what's going on. He found a way to bounce the signal so that it couldn't be traced, so we should be ok if we want to send something back to him. It might take a while for him to understand, because we can only send a message, we can't actually call and talk to him."

"Is that it?" Lilo asked.

Stitch thought back to the message, particularly the part about the serum. _I should find out what it does before I tell her. Just in case_. "No, nothing else. He wanted to make it quickly so that no one would notice him making it."

"Makes sense." Seras said. "I can keep track of the satellite, and if you send the messages through me, I can bounce them with other traffic off the satellite, making it almost impossible to trace."

"Cool, we'll do that later. The first thing we have to do is make a message."

"It isn't long until dawn." Lilo said, looking at the computer clock. "I think it can wait until tomorrow." Suddenly, the computer started beeping again, and Seras started typing.

"What is it?" Stitch asked.

"It's Finder. He's sitting about a mile out, and Cobra's closing in on his location fast." Seras said, continuing to type. "At this rate, he'll get here by dawn." She glanced at the clock. "You guys only have about an hour." She spun around, arms spread open, pointing at them. "You guys need to get leaving now! Lilo, you need to go tell Vexen and Letho. Stitch and I will go and pack your stuff up." Lilo ran out of the room, with Stitch right behind her. Seras stopped momentarily, just long enough to grab the vial off the table, and then ran out after Stitch.

"How much do you have to pack?" Seras asked when she hit the room.

"Not much." Stitch said. "We have pretty much everything packed already. In fact, we never really bothered to unpack." He glanced behind him, and noticed Seras slip something into Lilo's backpack: it looked like a vial of sorts. He turned back before she noticed him, and grabbed his backpack. He slipped on a pair of shorts, and turned back around to face Seras. "I'm ready." He said.

Seras tossed him the other backpack. "Why do you wear shorts, anyway? I mean, you don't really need them."

Stitch shrugged. "I wear them because it's comfortable. I don't need to, I just want to. Besides, I wanted something to change about my appearance." He threw the backpacks over his shoulder, and ran out after Seras. They ran into Lilo, Letho, and Vexen in the hallway.

"You guys ready to go?" Letho asked. "We need to get going." Stitch tossed Lilo her backpack, and Lilo rifled through it quickly to make sure everything was there.

"How are we getting there?" Lilo asked.

"We're going to make a run for it." Letho said. "We can't take a car down there, so we have to go by foot."

Stitch calculated in his head. "It's going to be close."

"And I _hate_ cutting things close." Vexen said. "Look, leave now. Anything that you've forgotten I can send to you in the next few days. Call me if you think of something you left, good luck, and visit again soon." They arrived at the front door, and Vexen opened it.

"Thanks for everything Vexen." Lilo said.

"Run like the wind guys." Vexen said, as Letho, Lilo, and Stitch stepped out of the door. As it closed behind them, the trio set off at a steady jog, heading southward.


	12. Journey in the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 12: Journey in the Dark

As they ran through the night terrain, Lilo noticed for the first time how well she could see, even in this poor illumination. She was able to see roots, branches, and rocks that she normally would have tripped over. However, after almost 20 minutes, she started falling behind and losing her breath. Stitch, who had been jogging behind her to make sure she didn't fall, picked her up and carried her.

"How far is it?" Stitch asked.

"At this pace, it should only take about twenty more minutes." Letho said. "Lilo, call Seras and see how far away they are." Lilo pulled out Stitch's communicator, and turned it on.

"Seras, how much time do we have?" Lilo asked.

"Well, Finder is still following you, staying a mile away. Probably orders, but you'd think you had a restraining order on him he was begging to break." Seras joked.

"What about Cobra?" Lilo heard typing over the line.

"He's going to reach you in about thirty minutes, give or take five minutes."

"Is it give or take?" Letho called back, loud enough for Seras to hear. "Because if you take off five minutes, we're going to be about even on timing."

Seras sighed. "I can't guarantee anything. My best guess is that, if he remains at his current speed, about thirty minutes. I can't get more precise then that, I'm sorry."

"It's ok Seras." Lilo said. "We'll be fine." Lilo turned it off, and put it back in Stitch's pack.

"How close is it going to be Letho?" Stitch asked.

"If Seras is right, closer then you want to know." Letho said. "The best we can hope for is that we make it there and get down before he catches up to us."

"Um, how exactly _do_ we get down?" Lilo asked.

"I'll explain later. We need to focus on getting there right now." Letho called back, speeding up slightly. They ran further and faster. Lilo, still being carried by Stitch, glanced up at the sky and noticed the sun was rising.

"How much further?" Lilo asked.

"Five minutes. Call Seras and see where Cobra is." Letho said, panting slightly. Lilo pulled out the communicator and called Seras again.

"How close?" Lilo asked.

Seras laughed. "You don't want to know how close you're going to cut it. My advice, is to run like the devil is behind you, and pray you make it on time." The connection cut, and Lilo put it back again.

"Don't bother." Letho said, starting to run. "I heard that." Stitch had to sprint in order to keep up. Lilo decided just to be quiet and see what lied at the end of the road. They ran for about half a mile, before coming up to a rock face.

"Um, what now?" Lilo asked. Letho ran a hand through his hair.

"Just give me a minute." He said. He started running his hand over the rocks, as if searching for something. Stitch strained his ears, and he moaned.

"I hear someone coming. It sounds like a car, probably an off-road vehicle. We don't have very much time before he gets here." Letho groaned, and searched faster.

"I know it's here somewhere, but I'm never sure exactly where." He muttered to himself. "It's here, I know it is." He continued searching as the sounds became closer and louder. "Got it!" He finally called. Part of the face slid open, and the trio jumped inside. As it slid closed behind them, Letho lit a torch.

"So, what stops them from coming in?" Lilo asked. "Can't they just open it also?"

"No they can't. See, there is some heavy technology working around the openings, making it almost impossible for non-vampires to get in." Letho explained. "We can walk now; we're not in danger anymore." Stitch set Lilo down, and they started down the passageway.

"So, where are we going?" Lilo asked.

"Believe it or not, a couple miles down this passage is one of the biggest vampire homes on Earth: the Vampiric Caverns."

"I've been wondering something." Lilo said. "If you know that they're going to attack, why don't you just leave?"

"Well, from what we know right now, they have a time set for when to do this. If we try and leave, they may just accelerate their plan, and it won't matter. We also believe that we have an informant in the higher ranks of officials. We haven't been able to pin it to anyone, but we're keeping all information heavily censored, to try and stop the information leak. It's working slightly, but not enough."

"So who do we need to go see?" Lilo asked.

"His name is Xukir. He's been in charge for almost five centuries now. He's also the only vampire-werewolf."

"There are werewolves too?" Lilo asked in an awed voice.

"Yes there are. But generally, one cannot be both vampire and werewolf."

"Why not?" Stitch asked.

"Truthfully, we're not really sure." Letho explained. "What we do know, is that in most people, the vampire and werewolf fight for supremacy in the body, and it ends with the person's body destroying itself. Xukir is the only one to have managed to stay alive through the transformation. He has days where he isn't exactly in his right mind, but other then that, he's ok. I mean, he's a very brilliant man; he's kept the vampires together better then anyone else. Generally, the vampires end up splitting into groups, and pursuing their own interests, but always keeping in line to help all vampires. However, when Xukir took charge, he said he wanted the vampires united under one banner. About a decade ago, he made the biggest step, and now we basically _are_ under one banner. There are still three or four small groups, but we are pretty much united."

"Is that why the vampeers are choosing now to attack?" Stitch asked.

"We believe so." Letho said. "More then likely, they are scared. Their only hope of defeating us was to take over our small groups one by one, which is pretty much what they were doing. Now, united, we are more then capable of standing up to them." He looked at a small sign carved into the passage wall. "We have another four miles to go. But we should rest here."

Lilo looked around. "Where?"

"There's a small passage to the side here. There are a few beds there, just incase you are injured or just dead tired, and don't want to go the rest of the way." He said, leading them to the side. "I don't think that we'll be disturbed over here. No one really uses them anymore." In the side room, there were five beds, all black. "Choose one, lie down, and get some sleep. There's going to be a lot of talking that has to be done tomorrow, and I don't need you guys to fall asleep." Letho lied down on one, and was asleep a moment later. Lilo and Stitch each picked one, and lied down.

"So, do you think that it'll be fun?" Lilo asked. "Being in a new environment and all."

Stitch shrugged. "I don't know. I think that it'll cool." Stitch yawned. "Right now though, I think that it'd be cool to get some sleep."

Lilo closed her eyes. "Yeah, sleep would be great." Moments later, they were both deep in slumber.

**8:00 PM**

Lilo rolled over and opened her eyes slowly. It took her a moment to remember where she was; when she did, she sprung up and looked around. Stitch was still asleep, and Letho was pulling food out of his backpack.

"Breakfast is served." Letho said, handing her a peanut butter sandwich and a water bottle. "I figured you'd still be in the habit of eating, so I decided to bring something along. I'm going to go walk a little ways back and double check that we aren't being followed. You should probably wake Stitch up and give him a sandwich. It should only take about an hour or so to finish the trip." He turned and walked out of the small cavern. "I'll be back in about ten minutes." He called over his shoulder. He disappeared around the corner, and was gone from sight. Lilo walked over to where Stitch was sleeping and shook him lightly.

"Wake up sleepy head." Lilo said. Stitch stretched, yawning loudly.

"Meega want sleep." He muttered.

Lilo dragged him out his bed. "I know, but we have to get going. Besides, you've been sleeping for over twelve hours." Stitch struggled slightly, but Lilo held firm.

"Fine, I guess I'll stay up." He said, grabbing a sandwich. "But I do protest."

"Go right ahead and protest." Lilo said. "Letho would have woken you up in a few minutes anyway. And I doubt he's the first thing you want to see when you wake up."

"I much rather look at a beauty like you." Stitch said, putting his arm around her. Lilo leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you're here Stitch. I would be so scared if I was here alone."

"Me too." Stitch replied. "This is a whole new world down here, and we never knew about it."

"It is kind of cool." Lilo said. "But scary at the same time. Oh, when we have time later, we'll have to make sure to send something to Jumba. I'm sure he's sitting on the end of his seat waiting for us to send a message back to him."

"Probably. But we don't have time now, and we won't until tomorrow probably. I'm sure he wants to show us around, have us meet people, and get us up to speed on anything he may have missed." Stitch said. "I mean, think of how much there is for us to see, and all the people to meet."

"Yeah, it'll probably take a while." Lilo said. "But I'm happy as long as I have you."

"Me too." Stitch replied. Lilo lifter her arm and scratched Stitch behind the ears, making him purr with delight.

"When all this is over," Stitch said, "We're going to have to go back and tell the others everything."

"Yeah." Lilo agreed. "I bet this whole thing will be a great story to tell everyone. We could even invite all of your cousins to hear it."

Stitch turned to face Lilo, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather be with here." He said. Lilo wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and they came together in a passionate kiss. They stayed together for a long while: until Stitch picked up Letho coming back with his ears. They separated, and each grabbed their packs. Stitch's eyes fell on Lilo's pack, and his mind wandered to the vial inside. He knew that he had to mention it to her at some point, but not just yet. At least, not until they were alone and definitely weren't going to be disturbed by passer-bys. A moment later, Letho's head poked around the corner.

"We're all clear. We should make the Caverns in about an hour or so at a good, steady pace. Let's get going." Stitch tossed Letho his pack, shouldered his own, and they headed down the path.

As far as Lilo could tell, they weren't going much of anywhere, but then again, everything looked the same to her. When she looked in any direction, all she saw were rocks and dirt. The torchlight made it a little more difficult to see, especially outside the radius of its light. After almost an hour Letho paused.

"Alright, we're going to be there in about 5 minutes. Just make sure you follow me the whole time. There is a lot to see here, but I have to introduce you to the Council first. Then we have to figure something out about Cobra and that… Tamhewt."

"Yeah, after that all we have to do is save all of you from an unknown weapon." Stitch said. "Sounds like a fun filled time."

Letho smiled. "You make it sound so boring and easy."

"Let's just take this one step at a time." Lilo said. "First the Council, and then we'll see to Cobra and Tamhewt."

"See, she has the looks _and_ brains." Stitch said. "Let's keep going." After a few more minutes of travel, the passage started to lighten up, and after another minute, Letho put out the torch. A moment later, they came to the mouth of the cavern.

"Welcome, to the Vampire Caverns."


	13. Xukir

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Sorry this chapter took so long; far longer then I wanted it to. I wanted to finish up the last few chapters of my other fanfic, Rescues. Has nothing to do with this one, but I needed it to end. Then I got swamped with homework, and then break, and everything got in the way. But I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 13: Xukir

Lilo and Stitch were overcome by the sheer size of it; the ceiling was probably a good ten stories up. Small buildings dotted the floor, and the length was so large, that one could not make out the other end. Stores, houses, and offices made up most of the buildings, but there were a few others. People, all vampires, dotted the area between the buildings. Various gaps in the ground were spanned by bridges for easy crossing.

"This is amazing." Stitch gasped. "The sheer amount of work this must've taken…"

"Part of it was magic." Letho said. "Even still, some of it is held by the ancient magic." They stood there for a minute, before Letho spoke again. "I wish I could let you take in the view longer, but we have to get going. I called ahead, and I'm sure that Xukir is awaiting our arrival. He was the one who sent me out in the first place, so he wants to see what I've dug down."

"Don't you mean dug up?" Stitch asked.

"Maybe if you lived below us." Letho said with a smile. "Enough jokes for now though, we need to get to the Capital building." They set off at a brisk pace, but slow enough that Lilo could easily keep up.

"What does it look like?" Lilo asked.

"Much like your White House. In fact, it's almost an exact duplicate, at least the outside. None of us has actually been inside it, so we don't know what that looks like."

"Really?" Lilo asked, surprised. "With how long you guys live, and how many of you there are, I would think that _one_ of you had been inside it at some point."

"Truthfully, compared to the number of people on Earth, we don't really register on the radar. There are several billion people living on this planet, and us plus the Vampeers, there's only about five million, at most."

"What about werewolves?" Lilo asked. She had always been a big fan of those.

"We're not really sure, but I believe that, all around the world, there are about two million or so. Not a lot, which helps them keep a low profile, which is good in their case, as they have to live with all the normal people." As they continued their journey through the city, they passed many other vampires, a few of whom nodded or waved at Letho. Lilo didn't have any way to tell time, so she guessed that their trip took them about ten minutes or so, before they could see their destination, sitting in the dead center of the city.

"You're right, it really does look like the White House." Lilo said after studying it up and down for a minute.

Stitch shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I've never seen it before."

"Well, take a good look," Lilo said, "Because you'll probably never see the real one." She turned to Letho. "So, do we just walk right in? Or do we meet him at some undisclosed location?"

"We'll meet him up there, don't worry. In fact, our meeting is in fifteen minutes, so we'd better get a move on." They continued their path towards the giant building. Stitch continued to study it, since he had never seen any pictures of the building. Lilo, who has seen numerous pictures, continued to glance around at the numerous people and buildings, overwhelmed by the sight.

_Wow_. Lilo thought. _An entire city, a capitol, here under America, and yet almost no one knows about it. It's amazing_. As they came to the front of the building, two large, burly men carrying large scimitars stepped in front of them.

"Names and reason for visit?" The one on the left asked.

"Letho, here with Lilo and Stitch to see President Xukir. We have an appointment." The one on the right pulled out a radio, and called in. After a moment passed, he appeared to get an answer, and let them in. When the doors closed behind them, they were met by a group of five guards, each armed with a small assortment of weapons.

"Arms out, legs spread, and prepare for a weapon search." One of them ordered. Lilo glanced over at Letho, stopped herself from rolling her eyes, and let them search them. After a minute, they were checked for wires and taps, and were then let through. They were escorted to a large office, where they were told to wait for Xukir. When the door closed behind them, Lilo's eyes wandered around the room, going from picture to picture, and wall to wall, wondering what Xukir actually looked like. She didn't have to wait long; the door opened, and he walked in.

He was a little shorter then Lilo expected. By the way Letho had talked about him, Lilo had thought he would have been about six feet tall. Instead, she was faced with a man that was only five foot three. He was a light tan, sharp blue eyes, and hair reaching halfway down his back, though it was cut just above his eyes in the front.. He was fairly well built for someone his height. He didn't look muscular, but on second glance, Lilo noticed that they were firm, which meant that he wasn't the strongest, but he had more then the average man, and he used them more for endurance. He also carried a large sword, of which the scabbard was strapped to his back, under the hair. He stepped forward, and he and Letho shook hands.

"Good to see you again Letho. I assume that this little blue guy is the one you found?"

Letho nodded. "Yes he is. And the young lady is…"

Xukir held up his hand. "Seph told me already. It's Lilo, right?" She nodded. "Yes, Seph told me, with great annoyance, about your coming. He doesn't feel that you'll do any good." Lilo put her head down. "However, I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that you're being here will only help, and not hinder." Lilo looked up with a small smile. "Now, to business. Please, take a seat." Everyone sat down, with Xukir behind the desk. "I'm not sure how much he has told you, so some of what you hear might be repetitive. However, what I have to say at the end is very important, so make sure you listen closely to that." Lilo and Stitch nodded.

"Up until recently, the Vampeers and us have been at a… tense peace, I would say. We have mutual respect, and fear, of each other, and therefore have left each other alone. However, a decade ago, which for us is nothing, we started receiving reports of a Vampeer plot to destroy this city. At first, we thought it was just a rumor, but to be safe we sent in a few spies. They managed to send word to us that they were planning to use modern weaponry against us. Before they could be more precise, they were caught and killed. I a thought for a while about our next move, and decided that we needed outside help, someone form the human world who could help us."

"But why our world?" Lilo interrupted. "Your all stronger and faster then we are."

"Yes, but even our youngest vampires have been here for over a century. We needed some… new blood, as it were; new people who would think outside the vampire box. So, I sent out a score of vampires, each to different areas around Earth. Letho had the United States, and he decided to start off on Hawaii. Said he wanted to see the weather down there. And, as it turns out, he found you. When I heard about his… find, from Seph, I decided to let the others keep looking, because we need all the help we can get. However, before we can figure out what you can do to help us, there are several… tests, that we must put you through."

"I've told you my views on this." Letho said.

Xukir nodded. "And I agree. Lilo will not partake in them, because she is far too young. Stitch however, will go through them. I am sure that he can take it." Lilo and Stitch both nodded. "Tomorrow, I will see you privately, and go over the tests in more detail. But for now, I think we should get you set up at Letho's place, until we can find you one of your own. Anything else you need?" Lilo shook her head. "Good, then I'll see Stitch tomorrow at 0900, and the rest of you at some point in time." They got up to leave. When they were at the door, Xukir called "Oh, and if anyone else finds a good man, you may have to fight them, depending on who found them. Just a heads up." Before Lilo could ask what he meant, the door shut, and they were led out of the building. When they got outside, Lilo turned to Letho.

"That last part… that's not good, is it." She said, more of a statement then a question.

Letho sighed, shaking his head. "Not at all. My guess is that some of the others will have found people, and refuse to let them work with anyone else. They will insist that you all fight for the… position, as savior, and you'll end up having to do a huge fight or something. I'm not really sure, because this has never happened before."

"Not surprising." Lilo said. "So, where do you live?"

"It's not too far away. Only a few more minutes of walking, then we'll be there."

"Do you live with anyone?"

Letho shook his head. "Nope, I live alone, so I only have an… I guess you'd call it an apartment. Don't worry though, there's plenty of room for the three of us. Although, one of you might have to take the couch; unless you'd rather take my coffin."

"I thought you _didn't_ sleep in coffins."

Letho shrugged. "Not normally, but I'm one of those oddballs who actually does. The one in the guest bedroom is actually a bed, so I don't think either of you will have an issue with that. But that's it for beds, and the only other thing you could use, other then the floor, is the couch. But we can figure all that out tonight." They spent the rest of the walk in silence, with Lilo and Stitch looking all around the city, awed by its vastness. It only took them another minute to reach Letho's apartment, which was on the third floor of four-floor apartment complex.

"So, how high can these buildings be?" Stitch asked. "I mean, there has to be some kind of limit." They came to a staircase, and started walking up.

"There is. In this particular location, it can't be any bigger then seven stories. In some places, they can't build more then three. It all depends on the cavern height, and how many people we think can easily drink in that region without getting noticed." They walked through the door to the third floor. "As far as where we live, that's up to us. Me, I grew up over in Ohio. Now, the Ohio of the early 1600's is nothing like Ohio today, but I still call it my homeland, which is why I chose to live here. I figure that you'll do the same one-day, as this is the closest cavern to Hawaii. Ah, here we are." He opened the door and let them in.

"Do you always leave the door unlocked?" Lilo asked.

"Many of us do. We have no crime here, so we don't need to. I also didn't grow up with the best of locks around, so I never used them in real life. Old habits die hard." Lilo looked around the apartment. There was a big sofa, kind of old, chairs, a TV, computer, a mini-house almost. The only thing out of the ordinary was a display of weaponry. To Lilo's surprise, there were guns in there, but they looked ancient.

"Where'd you get these?" She asked.

"I'm a collector of weaponry. This is my gun one. I never use them, of course, but they are all real. I picked them up as time went on, and stashed them. I have a large collection of swords and such from medieval times, but those aren't ones from the actual time period. Speaking of which, that should be our first priority." He led them to one of the small side rooms, and pulled out a large case. When they opened it, Lilo saw that it was filled to the brim with medieval weaponry. He brought it out to the bed in the guest bedroom, and dumped it all out.

"Lilo, I want you to look through these, and find a weapon you want to fight with."

"But I don't want to." Lilo said.

"I know." Letho sighed. "But you can't always count on Stitch to protect you. If something happens, I want to make sure that you won't get hurt without a good fight. Stitch, I assume that you'll help her pick one out." Stitch nodded. "Good, then I'll be back later when you're done." He walked out of the room, and closed the door behind him.

"Stitch, you have got to be kidding me." Lilo said. "I've never used a weapon in my life!"

"Actually, you've used a blaster several times." Stitch said. "But never a hand to hand weapon."

"So, how do I decide what to use?" Lilo asked. Stitch started sorting through the pile.

"Well, you probably want something light, easy to handle, and easy to hide, since you won't use it unless you have to. Um… I would think this." He pulled one out of the pile and handed it to her. "This is a dirk. It's basically a slightly bigger version of a dagger. I think that this one will do." He held the blade, offering her the hilt. She took it warily, and held it straight up.

"Well, it is light." Lilo said, swinging it a few times. "And it won't be too hard to hide. Guess all I have to do now is learn how to use it."

"I'm sure I could teach you a bit." Stitch said. "Letho could also."

"I would prefer you teach me." Lilo said. "I don't know why, but he kind of scares me a bit."

"Yeah well, that Xukir guy scares me. Vampire and werewolf; how much weirder can it get."

"Yeah." They sat silently for a moment. "Well, I can't teach myself, let's get going.


	14. The File

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Well, here's the next chapter. Hopefully I'll start getting these out faster. I may have this carry on to another book, as this is taking a little longer then I expected. I'll think about it, but either way, I'll let you know.

Chapter 14: The File

Stitch did what he could to help Lilo handle the weapon, which wasn't very much; his knowledge of medieval weaponry was highly limited. He was able to teach her how to do a few basic swings and stabs, but that was it. He was fascinated with the weapons, and started looking through the others.

"Hey, some shurikens!" Stitch said delightedly. "I've seen these before, and they're awesome. So, medieval ranged weapons can be used."

Lilo glanced over at him. "Can you use those?"

Stitch nodded. "It's easy enough, it's all in the wrist." He pulled out his lower arms, put a shuriken in each, and pulled them back in. "Never know when you might need a surprise." He explained.

"So, I guess I _will_ need Letho to help me figure this out." Lilo said. "Too bad, I was hoping you'd be able to show me everything."

"Hey, if I were teaching you how to use a blaster, I could show you every possible trick to it. But we're dealing with weapons that haven't widely been used since the natives were killed."

Lilo gave him a hug. "It's ok, I know you tried." He pulled her to him as tightly as he dared, careful not to hurt her with his strength.

"Thanks for letting me come with you Stitch."

"Thanks for coming along." The remained in each other's arms for several minutes, before finally pulling away.

"Let's go talk to Letho about your training." Stitch said. They walked out the door, and saw Letho was sitting reading a book. Lilo looked at the cover: whatever it was, it was in another language.

"What is that?" Lilo asked.

"It's in Chinese." Letho said, putting the book down. "I found myself with nothing to do for a few decades, so I decided to learn a new language. So, did you find a weapon?"

Lilo nodded. "Stitch said it was a… dirk?" Stitch nodded. "I think it'll do." Letho took the weapon from her and looked it up and down.

"I think this is the perfect weapon for you." He said. "We can start the training tomorrow. I have a few calls to make, and I'd prefer they be private. If you want, you can use my computer."

"You actually have a computer?" Lilo asked. "I'm surprised."

"Hey, even _I_ have to keep up with the modern age. It's only a few years old, actually, and it's a Macintosh, so it'll last a while longer." Lilo and Stitch walked into the guest room and closed the door. As Lilo turned on the computer, Stitch's communicator rang. Looking at it, he saw that it was only Seras.

"Be right back." He said. Climbing out the window, he went up to the roof and answered it. "Stitch here."

"Hey Stitch, it's Seras. Good to hear that you made it down there ok."

"Is Cobra giving you any trouble?"

"Yeah, he's busy 'talking' to my dad. I don't think that'll end very well. So, how do you like it so far?"

Stitch shrugged. "I haven't had a chance to see much yet, but from what I have seen, it looks pretty cool."

"Look, the reason I called is because of a file I found in Jumba's computer."

"What's it about?"

"That's the thing, I can't access it. It refuses access to anyone except for Jumba… and you."

"Hmm… that's interesting. What's the file name, I'll take a look at it."

"The file name is Experiment X. Take a look at it and see. If you can't find the file itself, go through Jumba's files on Molecular Change."

"Molecular Change?" Stitch said thoughtfully. "I know he was experimenting with that a lot in the past few months and all, but I wasn't sure how far he had gotten on it. By the sounds of it, he may have actually made it possible."

"Look in the file, and see what it says. Hey, I have to go, Cobra's calling me, and I don't want to make him wait too long. See you later." The line disconnected, and Stitch put the phone away.

"Experiment X." Stitch said to himself. "I'm going to need a computer though, and I don't want Lilo to see this, just in case. Guess I'll have to wait until tonight to use it." He crawled back down and into the window, and saw Lilo surfing the Internet.

"Hey, what'd she want?" Lilo asked.

Stitch shrugged. "Nothing much; she mostly wanted to know how we were doing, and let us know that Cobra's at their house, and he doesn't look very happy."

"I bet not, after we slipped out just a few seconds ahead of him." Lilo yawned loudly.

"You should take a nap." Stitch said.

"I'm not that tired." Lilo said, yawning again. Stitch picked her up, laid her on the bed, and pulled the covers up to her chin.

"Fine, then humor me." Stitch said. Lilo smiled and closed her eyes. A minute later, and she was sleeping. Stitch waited another minute just to make sure, and then took out the memory block and hooked it up to the computer. A moment later, and he had found the file he was looking for: Experiment X. He clicked it, and nothing happened. Stitch thought for a moment, and then realized what it was trying to do.

"It wants to scan the user, and this thing has no scanner." Stitch said. "So how do I get it to work then? When would it be unable to do a scan?" He thought hard for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "A major power drain." He started typing on the computer like a whirlwind. "Ok, so if I simulate a power drain, then it should go to backup and ask for a password." After a few more clicks of the keys, a box appeared on screen.

_Due to power drain in progress, ship cannot transfer power to scanner. Please provide password._ Stitch smiled as he read it, and put in the password.

"Things are so much easier when you know the master password for computers." Stitch said to himself. He glanced over at Lilo to make sure she wasn't awake, and then hit enter. The file opened, decrypted, and then was open for access. The explanation wasn't very long, so Stitch read through it quickly.

_Experiment X_

_Experiment X is my first attempt to molecularly change a living being. I have studied the subject of Molecular Change for many months, and I believe that I know how to do it. I have created a serum for someone that will change them into something they have always wanted. I know this sounds cryptic, but I don't want the person to know who it is yet. However, once I have successfully restricted access to this file, then I can speak of it._

Stitch looked, and opened the next entry in the file.

_Access to this file is now restricted to select few, meaning myself and 626. Now, I can say whatever I wish, without little girl seeing it. This formula was made by me to turn her into an experiment, similar to 624. I was not sure what to base this formula on, until 199 told me about little girl's diary. He told me about the things she has written about, and lately, all of them have been about 626. How she wants nothing more then to be with him the rest of eternity, to have him hold her close to his furry body and never let go, etcetera. She talks about him constantly, and at the end of her entries, wishes there were a way to be just like him, and be together forever. This formula is the key to making her dreams come true. If my calculations are correct, it will change her to be an experiment, and they can live together in happiness. Of course, I wouldn't make this if I weren't sure 626 felt the same way about her._

_Again, thanks to 199, I got a little insight to his journal. I was surprised at first that 626 kept such a thing. However, that is really none of my business. 199 told me what he wrote about little girl, I knew that I needed to make this serum for her._

Stitch growled as he thought of Nosy digging through his journal.

"He'd better hope I don't get back." Stitch said. "Or I'll tear his nose off of his face and make him eat it." But, threats aside, he knew what Jumba was thinking about.

Lately, he had become a little… obsessed, with being around Lilo. At first, when Angel had left him for Reuben, Lilo had been the only one around who had understood what he was going through, and therefore the only able to comfort him. He had always felt them grow closer together through the years, ever since she had saved him and let him stay on Earth with her. And after Angel left, Lilo was the only one in the universe he wanted to be with. He too had wished that they could be together for all of time.

"Too bad we don't have the serum with us." Stitch said. "We could use it after this whole thing is over. I mean, we do like each other." Could he use the word love? After all, he had thought Angel loved him, but she had gone off with Reuben and left him alone. He closed the file, unhooked the memory block, and put it away. "Let's see how this plays out." He said to himself. He slipped out of the room, and shut the door quietly behind him. Seeing that Letho was off the phone, he went down and sat on the couch.

"Is she ok?" Letho asked.

Stitch nodded. "She just needs some sleep; she's taking a nap right now, which is why I left her alone."

"Ok."

"Seras called while you were on the phone. She says that Cobra's asking Vex a lot of questions."

Letho sighed. "I was afraid of that. But don't worry; he won't tell him anything useful. And there's no way that he can get down here, not unless he turns himself into a vampire. And even then, he'll have to wait a few days until the Period is over; no matter what, he's out of the way for now. If he comes back, we'll cross that bridge then."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, we have to meet Xukir again at some point. Whether or not you have to fight the others is up to them."

"Why can't we just work together?" Stitch asked.

"Hey, that's what I want. But some vampires are looking for honor and glory, and if the one they brought in saves us alone, then they will be glorified right next to them."

"Oh." Stitch said.

"Don't worry; I don't think that it'll come down to that. You are also going to have to go through the tests."

"What are the tests anyway?" Stitch asked.

"For you, it should be a cinch. They test your speed, intelligence, strength, and determination. I can't really say more then that: each test is unique to the one taking them."

"What happens if you fail?" Stitch asked.

Letho gulped. "Well… what we do, and this is why I wouldn't let Lilo take them, is… kill you."

"So, if by some odd chance I lose, you'll…"

"Have to chain you down, spear you, and… throw you in the ocean to drown."


	15. Surge

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Merry Christmas! With the season of giving here, I've decided to give you two chapters in my two books, Vampiric Link and Carbon Copy. I hope you enjoy it. By the way, I now have a poll on my bio page. Check it out and vote for your top ten characters from Lilo and Stitch. I think I got them all, but 'other' is a choice, in case I missed one.

Chapter 15: Surge

Matthew glanced in the kitchen and sighted heavily. "My God Seras, will he ever leave us alone? That guy is starting to drive me insane, especially with his piercing stare."

Seras shrugged. "Who knows? Without the ability to follow them down into the caverns, there isn't much he can do at the moment. From what I've read about him, he's not the kind of person to give up so easily. He'll try and find a way down."

"Is there any way he can get down there without having to be a vampire?" Matt asked. Seras walked down to her computer room, and Matt followed.

"I haven't really looked in that before, so let's go take a look. I don't think that there is any way, but there could be another loop hole in the magic."

"So, not only do we have to look for ways in, but also look at the ancient magic. That should only take us a really long time."

Seras unlocked the door to the computer room and they walked in. "Well, if we split up we should be fine. I'll take a look at the magic, since that will require a lot more thought and careful study. You can use the large screen and computer to look at the schematics. Thankfully, they were updated it at the end of last year, so just look at the schematics and see where the exits are, and see if there are any holes in the protection." Just as they sat down, there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Seras called.

"Cobra."

Matt groaned. "Um, no one's home! Come back later!"

"Open the door now." Cobra demanded.

"And what if I refuse?" Seras called. "What if I don't want you in my room?"

"This isn't your room, and I want access. I need to look at the data you have."

"And why's that?"

"Because I need to know if Stitch put any of his data on your computer." Cobra said.

Matt glanced over at Seras. "He knows." He whispered. "What are we going to do?"

Seras sighed. "I can simulate a power surge, which will knock out the computers. It'll wipe out everything on there, but I have backups of everything, including the stuff Stitch got us."

"So what do we do?" Matt asked.

"I'll get the door. Go over to the far computer and run the Overload executable." Seras said.

"Well?" Cobra called.

Seras gave Matt a moment, and then walked towards the door. "Give me a sec." She called. She unlocked the many locks on the door, and opened it up. "Pick a computer any computer." Matt stepped away from the computer he had been using, and when Cobra had his back turned, gave Seras the thumbs up.

"This shouldn't take too long." Cobra said. "It's only a simple, quick search."

"No, it won't take long at all." Seras muttered under her breath. Cobra typed for a minute, before there was a loud beeping. The computers lit up, and then all the power went out.

"What happened?" Cobra asked.

"Let me check it out." Seras said. She flipped a few switches, and one of the monitor screens popped on.

"What's it say?" Matt asked.

Seras read it for a moment. "It says we've had a power surge."

"What's the damage?" Cobra asked.

Seras turned and looked up at him. "Everything's gone. The surge completely wiped the hard drive, and the ram is shot too. I'll have to remake everything from scratch."

"How long?" Cobra asked.

"With all the info I had, probably a lot longer then you'll want to hang around. Since I don't have anything backed up, I'm going to have to redo everything. It'll have to be a few months at least."

Cobra sighed. "I don't have that kind of time. I'll have to go elsewhere for the data." He walked out the door and shut it behind him. Seras went and reset the breaker, turning the power back on.

"That went better then I had expected." Matt said.

"He knows." Seras said. "But he also knows that I'll do everything I can to stop him from getting to Lilo and Stitch, so he's not going to bother going through all the time to make me give him the data. Besides, even with the back ups, it'll take a few days to get everything back. At least, a week if you help me."

Matt shrugged. "Sure, I don't have anything better to do then copy and paste stuff on to a bunch of computers."

"Thanks. Let's wait until Cobra leaves before we start, just in case." They headed out the door, where they ran into Maggie

"Hey guys. Just wanted to tell you that the tall CIA guy left." She said.

"That was fast." Matt said.

Maggie nodded. "Yeah, he was in a real hurry. He told us your computers were broken."

Seras shrugged. "Nah, I can fix it."

"Just do what I did: use a hammer." Maggie said.

"Did it work?" Matt asked.

Maggie shook her head. "Not really. It fell into a bunch of pieces, cracked the screen, and it didn't work ever again. Maybe you'll have better luck. Love to stay and chat, but I have some Anime to catch up on." She bounded off down the hall and around the corner.

"I didn't even know she had a computer." Matt said.

"I bought her one. She broke it the first day because it wasn't working. Turned out that she had never turned it on. Come on, let's get started."

**Vampiric Caverns**

Stitch looked at Letho. "Kind of cruel, isn't it?"

Letho shrugged. "Most vampires don't think so. A vampire is only good if they can pull their own weight. That's what these tests do for us: show us who is capable of being a good vampire."

"Yet you managed to talk them out of making Lilo take them." Stitch said.

Letho smiled. "I was afraid it might not work. I convinced Xukir though that she was too young to take it, and it was better for us if she didn't. Young vampires have always been exempt from taking the trials until they are old enough. Also, I told him that if he gave them to her, and she ended up failing, we would lose you as well, as you would never let us kill her."

Stitch growled at the thought. "If you had tried, I would have killed every last one of you."

Letho nodded. "I figured as much, after all that I heard and studied about you. So she's exempt from them until she reaches maturity, which won't be for about half a century or so; then she'll have to go through them. But I'm sure that she'll be prepared by then with our help."

Stitch looked up at him. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, Xukir needs us tomorrow at nine at night, so we'll have to head there first."

"Wait." Stitch interrupted. "He said 0900. Isn't that in the morning?"

Letho laughed. "Your still thinking like a surface dweller, as we say. 0900 for us would be nine at night, not the morning."

"Oh. That makes sense now. I was kind of wondering about that earlier, but I didn't want to say anything dumb."

"That's ok, everyone has issues changing at first. Anyway, when we see him he'll talk to you first about the Trials and all that, and then he'll need to talk to us as a group about our situation and stuff. After that, I'm not really sure. He may send us out to check some stuff out, but he'll probably let us hang around here until Stitch goes through the Trials, giving me a chance to help Lilo learn how to use her dirk. I don't think we have to worry about you failing them, so the only thing we have to worry about is Cobra. By the way, have you heard from Seras again?"

Stitch shook his head. "Not yet, but I don't expect to hear from her for a bit. If Cobra's there, they're going to have to lie low for a bit. Speaking of which, I'm going to leave her a message to tell her what's going on. What time is it?"

Letho glanced at his watch. "Almost four o'clock. Make your phone call and wake Lilo. I've got some blood stored here. It's not as good as direct feeding, but it works fine. We'll have a good dinner, and then I'll put in a movie. How does Dracula sound?"

Stitch smiled. "Kind of ironic, since that movie is almost nothing like you. Give me a few minutes." Letho nodded, and Stitch went back up to the roof. He dialed Sears' number, and waited as it rang. To his surprise, she answered.

"Hey Stitch, how's it going?"

"I didn't expect you to pick up." Stitch said. "I figured Cobra would keep you busy."

Seras laughed. "Yeah right. When he tried looking at my computers, Matt and I shorted them out, wiping them clean of all the data. He left just after that for some other poor soul's house. So, anything of interest?"

"Not really. After tomorrow, I'll have quite a bit to talk about. I have to meet Xukir to talk about my Trials, and then about our 'situation', and then who knows. Letho thinks I'll be able to sit back for a few days until the Trials, and then we'll be kept busy until we can figure this thing out. Hey look, I need to make another call, and it's kind of important."

Seras nodded. "That's fine. Say high to Lilo for me when you can. Call you later." The line disconnected, and Stitch smiled.

"Time to leave a message for Jumba." He said. He pushed a few buttons.

"Record message after the tone." The communicator said. Beep.

Stitch took a deep breath. "Hey Jumba, it's Stitch. I know we kind of left in a hurry. Chutah, we left in a flurry of motion. I wish I had had a chance to say something to you, to talk to you about this, but I didn't have any time. Everything Cobra said is right: Lilo and I are vampires. I decided to do this to help save the vampires, and Lilo chose out of… out of love for me. I really appreciate that. I didn't know she'd go this far just for me. I guess you'd like to know where we are. Wish I could tell you exactly, but I can't risk it, in case Cobra finds this. However, you would love it down here. It's underground, and it's an entire _city_ down here, completely self-sustained. It's completely awesome. Lilo's sleeping right now, so you can't talk to her. She gets to learn how to fight with medieval weapons, along with me. She's trying out a dirk, and I'm going to use my fists and shurikens. I got your previous message, and I looked it up. However, the file itself is not very specific. I was wondering if you could tell me anything else about it? So, I have to go through these… tests you could call them, to make sure that I am an asset to these guys. I shouldn't have too much a problem. Lilo doesn't have to go through them, because she's too young. We met some really awesome people. I think the person you'd like to meet is Seras. She's as smart, if not smarter, then even you. She's got tons of computers, data, hacking skills, and even made a direct, functioning clone of her dead brother. Wish I could chat longer, but I have to get some stuff done. I'm going to bounce this off of a major satellite, so it might be delayed a day or so. If you get a chance, go say high to Seras and them. You'll have to switch from living in the day to the night, but I'm sure you'd enjoy it immensely. Hope to hear from you soon. If you see Angel, give her a hug for me. I'll give Lilo one from Nani." Stitch ended the message, and started pushing more buttons.

"Ok, so where is the satellite at the moment?" He asked himself. After a little more searching, he found it. "Now, send message through satellite, scrambled, and on a out delay of two hours." Stitch told the communicator.

"Message sent."

Stitch smiled and turned off the communicator. "I hope Jumba's happy for now. I can always send him more later." He crawled back down the wall and into the room.


	16. Information

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter 16: Information

Stitch woke up to a light shake.

"Come on Stitch, it's almost eight-thirty; don't want you to be late." Lilo said. Stitch grumbled and turned over, not wanting to open his eyes. For some reason unknown to him, he had barely slept a wink last morning, and was quite tired. Lilo sighed after Stitch turned over, and pulled him off of the bed; he landed on the floor with a dull thud.

"I'm up, ok? Stitch mumbled. Lilo merely smiled, and walked out of the room. Stitch picked himself up off the floor and walked out of the room. He sat down at the kitchen table, where Letho gave him two cups; one filled with blood, the other filled with coffee.

"I know that the blood tastes like coffee to you already, but I figured you could use the real thing." Letho said. Stitch drained both cups without a thought.

"You're going to need a bath before you go see him." Lilo said. "I'm sure you don't need me to give one to you anymore." Stitch moaned, not really excited about getting in to water and getting wet. He still hated water a lot, since he sank in it. However, he didn't want to look like a baby anymore in front of Lilo, so he walked in to the bathroom and shut the door. He turned on the shower, putting it to a warm/hot, and after a deep breath, stepped in.

He wasn't exactly sure why he hated showers so much: it felt good to have the water washing away the muck and grim of the underground. Part of him still wished he were about ground, getting scrubbed by Lilo; he enjoyed that more, for some reason. Probably because he loved to be around Lilo, and never wanted to be more then ten feet away form her at any given point. Part of it was protecting her from harm, but the other part of him had… very strong feelings for her. He would even go as far as to say true love. But how could he and Lilo get together when they were so different? Not in personal likes and dislikes, but he was an alien, and she was human. Even if they did get together, she'd eventually be five, maybe even six feet tall; he'd miss being able to look straightforward into her eyes, not having to look up. The serum that Jumba made floated through his mind, but he pushed it away. _The decision for that lies with Lilo, and with Lilo alone_. He thought.

After about ten minutes, he turned off the water and shook himself dry. He came out of the shower, went to his stuff, and put on a pair of black shorts; not because he needed to like earth males, but because it made him feel comfortable for some reason. He stood in front of a mirror and took a few minutes to make sure his fur was lying flat. He glanced at the clock, and it read 8:45. He came out, and saw Lilo and Letho by the door waiting for him.

"Let's go." Letho said. They walked down the stairs and out of the building.

"So, do vampires have jobs?" Lilo asked.

Letho nodded. "Sure. We have many of the same jobs that you do on the surface down here. Some of us even go up there and work overnight, stocking and stuff."

"So what do you do?" Stitch asked.

"I'm a writer." He said.

"Really?"

Letho nodded. "I've been having my writings printed throughout time. Only one or two of mine have actually been acknowledged on the surface, but I enjoy it."

"That's awesome." Lilo said. "What about Vexen?"

"He's a scientist, and a really good one, too. He actually hasn't done anything for a few years, kind of like a long break. Not sure when, or even if, he intends on going back to it." They made it to the Capital building with only a few minutes to spare. They entered, were searched, and then put in the waiting room outside the office. Just as the clock hands hit nine, the door opened, and Xukir stood in the doorway.

"Good to see you all here." He said. "Stitch, I need to talk to you privately first." Stitch nodded, and walked inside the door, and Xukir closed it behind him.

"So Stitch, as you probably know by now, all vampires, when they are of age, must go through the Trials. I am going to get a little more in to it."

"Ok. Like what?"

"First of all, there are ten different trials, but you only have to partake in three. They are chosen at random by another vampire The Trials will test you in many ways; if you complete them successfully, you are then a member of our community. If you fail them, well… I believe Letho already covered that with you." Stitch nodded. "You will pick the first Trial today, and then partake in it tomorrow." Letho pulled out a stone pail, and held it out to him. "Pick." Stitch gulped and stuck his hand in. He felt ten stones inside; each seemed to have some sort of carving on them. He took a deep breath, closed his hand around one, and pulled his arm out. Letho took it from him and examined it. "The Trial of Fires is your first test. Your job during this ten-minute trial is to dodge the fires in the pod you will be placed in. These fires are not the normal fires that you probably know, but are created with many chemicals, making it much more deadly." Stitch's mind raced, wondering if his fire immunity would work against this. "That is all for now. Please be kind enough to go and invite your friends in." Stitch stood up and walked over to the door, opening it.

"You guys can come in now." He said. Lilo and Letho stood up from the bench outside the door and walked in. Stitch closed the door behind them, and they walked to Xukir's desk.

"So, now that Stitch and I are done, I need to tell you exactly about what's going on down here, with why you were… summoned." Everyone sat down in the chairs.

"A few months ago we got a report that a group of… ecstatic vampeers were going to use a large explosive to take down the caverns. At first, we thought we were ok with the magic protecting us, but when we took a closer look at the wording, we realized that we were in trouble. We've been trying to figure out when this is going to happen, but we're not sure; our spies were caught and killed before they could get more details. At first, my hope was that we could find someone with the ancient magic to seal the hole, but from what we can tell, the line died out almost a century ago. So now, our only hope is to stop this attack form happening. We need to try and find the bomb, and stop the ones involved. Your job is to look through all the information we have gained, follow leads of your own, and see if you can find those involved, and through them, the location of the weapon. The only thing I ask is be careful what you tell to whom: the majority of the population doesn't know about the threat that is approaching, and we'd like to keep it like that. I want you to draw your own conclusions from the data, but what I will tell you is that the only person that we have connected to anything around here is Vamal. He was a Vampeer once, but claimed he wanted to change his ways. After a decade of watching him, we called off the people trailing him. Half a year ago, he fell off the grid, and we've been trying to locate him ever since. The latest scuttlebutt is that he's hiding out somewhere in Northern Ireland, on the outskirts of Lifford."

"I think that should be our first stop." Letho said.

"I figured you say that." Xukir said. "Once Stitch goes through the Trials, I can get you three tickets to the earliest flight over there. Other then that, it's all up to you."

"Where can we get all the data?" Stitch asked.

"We've got it all archived in the restricted section here." He passed each of them a card with their picture on it. "These security cards will give you access from restricted and down."

"Which means… what?" Lilo asked.

"We have several classifications for data. From lowest to highest it goes open access, restricted, confidential, top secret, and then for-your-eyes-only. That's as high as it goes. As you do more and more for us, or advance in certain areas, then your security access will improve. But for now, I suggest that you take some time off because Stitch is going to have to go through a lot tomorrow for the Trials. That's all that we know, and that's all you can know for now about the Trials, so go home and rest up: you're going to need your strength for tomorrow." Lilo, Stitch, and Letho stood up and left.

"So, what can we do?" Lilo asked. "We're getting swamped here, and we still need to know what Tamhewt is going to do to Cobra."

"Well, we can't skip out on the Trials." Letho said. "There's nothing we can do about that. Right after the Trials we can go out after Tamhewt, then we'll go to Ireland. From there, we'll have to see where the road takes us."

Lilo nodded. "Sounds like the only thing we can do, really. We'll have to make sure Stitch is rested up for the Trials tomorrow."

"Extra dose of blood tomorrow morning: that should help fortify you for the Trial. By the way, which one did you pick?"

"The Trial of Fires."

Letho winced. "I remember that one well, had to go through it myself. Whatever you do, don't get backed into a corner. If you do, you'll be in big trouble. I got backed into one, and it took me over a week to recover, but I still had to do the other Trials."

"Stitch is fireproof, though." Lilo pointed out. "Shouldn't he be fine?"

Letho laughed. "Had that same thought when I went through, so I put on a fireproof vest. Unfortunately, these fires are made with special chemicals, and the normal resistance doesn't work. I would be very careful if I were you."

**8:00 PM the next day**

Stitch sat outside a large, steel cage. He couldn't see in to it, but he heard air whooshing out of tubes, probably testing the flames. He had a vial of blood in his left hand, waiting until he was about to go in to drink it. The doors opened a moment later, and he chugged it. Xukir, Lilo, and Letho were standing outside the door.

"We'll be here when you're done." Lilo said.

"You must survive for ten minutes." Xukir said. "When the time is up, the flames will stop, and the door will open, where we can care for you if you are seriously injured. You pick your next Trial two hours after you finish." Stitch nodded, gave Lilo a quick kiss on the cheek, and stepped in the room. The walls were covered with slots, holes, and pipes. The air inside was horribly dense, making it difficult to breath. He looked behind him, and the last thing he saw before the door shut was Lilo's face, laden with worry. Xukir's voice rang through the pod.

"Your Trial begins… now."


	17. Fires of Hell

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Happy New Year! I wanted to be one of the first to post a chapter in the new year (Central Time, at least), so here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 17: Fires of Hell

The door closed behind Stitch, and he heard it lock: he was now stuck in here for the next ten minutes. He started breathing faster, getting more nervous by the second.

"The Trial of Fires is a ten minute trial. Your only goal is survival. The flames will increase in frequency and intensity as the time increases. When your trial is over, you will be given a day to rest, and then you will pick your new trial. Also, you will be able to receive any medical attention you need. However, you must pick a new trial tomorrow, in the Capital Building, and participate in it the following day. Failure to do so will result in your death. Now, the Trial of Fires will begin in one minute." Stitch groaned, but resigned himself to worry about all this _after_ he made it through this. He leaned against the wall, and started to control his breathing. Unfortunately, the minute passed far too quickly.

"The Trial of Fires begins… NOW!" Stitch got off the wall, and perked his ears, awaiting the sound of the whooshing flames. A moment later, he heard the whoosh of air, and stepped to the left to avoid a jet of flame that shot out of the floor next to him. The sheer amount of heat that emanated from it hit him like a wall, causing him to stumble back in fear. He was now sure that, normal fire or not, this was _not_ going to be fun. He had an internal clock, so he would know when it was all over. On the other side of the room, two pipes threw fire into the room, but too far away to make Stitch even flinch. However, now he was on his guard.

Outside the room, Lilo looked up at Letho, worry and distress on her face. "Can we watch him during the trial?"

Letho shook his head. "All we can do is hope and pray for him. Hopefully, that will be enough." Lilo put her hand on the door, and could feel the heat from inside on it.

"Please be ok Stitch." She whispered.

Inside, Stitch was busy dodging flames. About seven minutes had passed, and Stitch was starting to tire. The worst part though, was in dodging a wall of flames, he had accidentally rolled too close to a corner.

"Blitznak!" He swore loudly. He knew that this spelled bad news, because if he wasn't careful, he would end up having to dive through the flames and heat; both had gotten far worse since the beginning of the trial. Two minutes to go now, but he had only a half-foot of clearance on each side of him, and almost none in front or behind him. As the seconds passed, he was surprised that he didn't have to move. However, just as his clock told him one minute, he heard the flames coming at him from above, below, and from the sides. He had only a moment to decide what to do, and his options didn't look good; either stand there and get cooked, or take a chance and dive through the flames in front of him. He growled, closed his eyes, covered them with his hands to protect them, and dove through the flames.

He knew when he hit the wall, because he was suddenly engulfed in pain and torment. Every part of him screamed to get out of the flames, but he continued through the wall by rolling through the end of it. When he was finally out, he couldn't stand, he couldn't move: his body wouldn't respond at all. He heard the flames erupting around him, but all he could do was lie there. He used all his strength to roll himself into a ball, and he rolled what little he could to avoid the flames, but he knew even if he managed to get through, he was going to need more then a day or two to recover. His mental clock counted down: 10…9…8…7…6 the flames almost covered the room now 5…4…3…2…1…0. Just as he hit zero, the flames stopped, and the room fell silent. Stitch uncurled himself from his ball of protection, and moaned, pain still lancing through his body. He felt horribly dizzy, and his head rolled around as he tried to make sense of exactly where in the room he was. He saw the wall right next to him on his left. He put his hand against the wall and slowly stood up. Every part of him hurt, and he knew that everything was burned. Thankfully, he had covered his eyes, so he could still see just fine. He stumbled over to the door, and found it unlocked. He groaned as the dizziness swept over him even worse then before.

Lilo was still leaning against door when she felt it shift. She stepped back, hoping Stitch was all right. The sight that greeted her, however nearly caused her to faint. "Stitch!" She cried.

Stitch stood in the doorway, chuckling. "I guess meega not _completely_ fireproof." Stitch fainted, but Lilo managed to catch him before he hit the floor.

"Letho, we have to get him to a hospital!" Lilo cried, staring at Stitch's burned body.

"Here, take this." Xukir handed Letho a slip of paper. "It'll get him in to the top medical care. Everyone taking the trials gets the best we offer."

"Thanks." Letho said. He picked up Lilo, who was still holding Stitch. "It'll be faster if I run."

**Fifteen Hours Later**

Stitch moaned as he came to. Every part of him felt like he was on fire, and as his memory came back to him, he realized that he had been at one point not too long ago. He felt someone's head on his stomach, and he knew who was, even without opening his eyes. "Lilo?" He whispered.

"Stitch?" Lilo said, half-awake. "Stitch, are you ok?"

"I'm ok; I'm fluffy." He whispered. "How bad is it?"

"Well, I'm not going to lie to you Stitch; you got hurt really bad." Lilo said quietly, her head still on his stomach. "I just hope that you can make it through the rest of the trials."

"I'll be ok." He whispered. "At least, it could have been worse."

"Yeah, I noticed that your eyes were ok."

Stitch laughed. "Yeah, I wanted to make sure I could see you when I got back."

Lilo felt tears coming down here face. "If you didn't want to be with me anymore, you could have just said something instead of trying to barbeque yourself."

Stitch laughed harder. "Sorry, never could face a girl I wanted to leave."

"What did you ever say to her anyway?" Lilo asked.

"Well, we just kind of split apart, we never really said anything to each other. Besides, she's completely content with Reuben out in the deep space probe, or whatever they're doing out there. So, how long have I been out?"

Lilo glanced at the clock. "I dunno, about fifteen hours."

Stitch shot up, but immediately went back down as pain lanced back through "That means I only have… nine hours before I have to pick my next trial!"

"Don't worry. All you have to do is be standing and pick it out of the bucket. He said that I could be there when you do, so I can help hold you up."

Stitch smiled. "Thank you."

"You should get some sleep Stitch. I'll wake you up so that we can head over and pick up your next Trial." Stitch closed his eyes and started to fall asleep. He felt Lilo hold his hand, and she whispered something, His ears barely caught it.

"I love you more then anything, Stitch." She whispered. A moment later, she was snoring.

"I love you more then you think, Lilo." He whispered in response. He too fell asleep later.

**Deep Space**

"How's it going hotcakes?" Reuben asked.

"I'm fine Reuben. I fixed that little flux in the engine power a minute ago. How about you?"

"Well, I am a little worried about Lilo and Stitch." He said. "Last transmission we got from Earth said that they were missing."

"Yeah. Nosy also said that they were going out. I'm not sure how bad it is back there, but Gantu sure is in a hurry to get back."

"We should be there in a couple hours." Reuben said. He came over and put his arm around Angel. "You should rest."

"I'll be fine." Angel said.

"I don't think the baby likes you straining yourself." He replied, putting his hand on her slightly bulging stomach.

"Fine, I'll go to bed early then."

"I will too." Reuben said. Angel turned and their lips met briefly.

"Gantu needs you to watch all the instruments." Angel said.

"He'll be fine by himself. Besides, I need my sleep too. A tired father is not the thing a little baby needs."

"Just as long as he tells us when we're about to land. I want to start looking for them right away."

"Just don't strain yourself." Reuben said.

**Vampiric Caverns**

Stitch woke up slowly, and realized he didn't really want to. But one glance at the clock made him wake up: he had twenty minutes to get to Xukir's office. Lilo was still asleep, her head still on his stomach.

"Hey, wake up call." He whispered, shaking her gently. She shook her head, and slowly sat up.

"How long do we have?" She asked.

"Oh, about twenty minutes." He said. Lilo shot up and started brushing her hair down.

"We have to get there now." She said hurriedly. Stitch slowly sat up, pain still throbbing through his body.

"Hope this is an easy one." He said. Lilo helped him out of bed, and they quickly shuffled down to the elevator, where Letho was waiting.

"Here, I'll carry him until we get to the office. After that, you'll have to support him. Just support him, and nothing else. Otherwise he gets disqualified. Remember that." Lilo nodded, and fifteen minutes later, they were walking into the Capitol. They made it to the office door just as Xukir opened it.

"Right on time." Xukir said. Letho set Stitch down, and Lilo helped him into the room. The door shut behind them, and they shuffled to the desk. "Pick your next Trial, Stitch." Stitch put his hand in, moved it around for a moment, before picking one out. He handed it to Xukir without looking at it. Xukir flipped it over, and nodded. "Ah, one of the easy ones. This is the Trial of Agility and Speed. Your task in this is to run through a special cave we have. It is five miles long, and as you travel along, the stalactites will fall from the ceiling, knocked loose by several vampires along the way. Whether they hit you or you dodge them, you have to finish the Trial in thirty-five minutes. That means you have seven minutes to complete each mile. See you tomorrow at 0800." Lilo and Stitch nodded, and left the room. When they got out, Letho picked Stitch up again.

"Which Trial?"  
"Agility and Speed." Stitch said.

Letho nodded. "Good. That one is fairly simple, especially since we are faster then normal humans. The only downside is that you're already injured from the first one, but that shouldn't have too much of a damper on it. You are going to lie down from the moment until we have to leave for the Trial."

Lilo nodded. "I'll make sure he stays resting. I'll sit on him if I have to."

"Promise?" Stitch asked. They all burst out laughing.


	18. Returned Call

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Chapter: 18: Returned Call

"Come on Stitch, try again!" Lilo begged.

Stitch shook his head. "I'm not strong enough Lilo, not after the fires." It was a few minutes before the start of his next trial, the Trial of Agility and Speed. Lilo had been trying to help him gain enough strength so that he could climb on the walls, but his muscles simple protested to try after the torture they had been forced to endure in the first trial.

"I must admit, it was a good idea, climbing on the ceiling." Letho said. "That would have made the only thing he had to worry about time. However, we need to forget about that for now, and focus on the trial. Remember, with such a short time amount, you will need to be careful. You need to average seven minutes per a mile, but don't overexert yourself right away. Because they give you count downs for every five minutes, you should be able to pace yourself well. I had to take this trial when I was inducted, and my advice for you is for the last half-mile, sprint your heart out. Pretty much everything will be falling on you, and dodging into the wrong spot will slow you down far too much."

Xukir stepped up. "The trial is about to start. You'd better get to the line." Stitch walked up to the start spot, and Letho handed him a bottle. "It's filled with water. Since you're still under a year old as a vampire, your body still requires it to survive. This trial is going to dehydrate you horribly, and we don't want you to pass out three miles in from being dehydrated. This is all you get, but at the end, there is pure water stream that you can drink as much as you want from." He looked at his watch. "Time for the formal announcement." He pulled out something that looked similar to a bullhorn, and turned it on.

"The Trial of Agility and Speed is about to begin. You have thirty-five minutes to cover the five miles path, with only one bottle of water to hydrate. We will announce every five minutes the time you have left, and after five count down by single until we hit zero. We will not tell you how much more ground you need to cover, though. Beware of falling stalactites, which will be knocked loose by other vampires as you go along. Place yourself on the start mark, and be ready. You trial starts… NOW!" Stitch got down on all fours, and started off at a paced jog. He was about a hundred feet in, a stalactite crashed down a few inches to his left. He had heard it coming though, so he didn't jump. Thankfully, he could gauge the distance he had gone fairly accurately with his mind so all he had to worry about was time and paying attention for stalactites. It was quite dark in the passage, but he had his night vision to help him out.

As he continued on his way, he started to get worried. The stalactites continued to fall with increasing speed and in greater numbers, time was running out, and his injuries from before were starting to pain him greatly. From what he could tell, he had gone about halfway there, and there were fifteen minutes left. He flinched as a stalactite shattered and the pieces hit his side, but he continued. He glanced at his water bottle, and it only had about two swallows left. He dumped what was left, bottle and all, into his mouth and swallowed it. He started to increase his pace, knowing that time was quickly running out. He was moving far more quickly now, as he had spent a little too much time covering the first two miles. He hit the four-mile mark, and smiled: he was almost done.

"Five minutes remaining." A voice called out. Stitch paused for a few seconds, and then took off running. Stalactites fell and exploded on the ground around him, but he didn't care. He knew that he was almost at having only half a mile left, which meant that he'd have to sprint his heart out to make it there on time.

"Two minutes remaining." Stitch had only half a mile left now. He extended his lower two arms, and took off as fast as he could. Stalactites were falling continuously now, mostly behind and beside him. The shards hit him and hurt when they hit his already injured skin. Everything was hurting again, and it felt like everything was going to fall off, but he continued. "One minute." Stitch was now only a flurry of movement, his six paws pounding over and over against the rocky ground. He saw the end coming closer and closer, but he wasn't sure if he could make it. His eyes fell on Lilo, who was yelling at him, urging him to hurry. The clock ticked down in his head faster then he thought possible.

"Come on Stitch!" Lilo yelled. Just as the clock was about to hit zero, he dove forward.

"TIME UP!" Stitch stayed where he was on the ground, panting hard. Lilo came running up to him, and kneeled by him.

"Did he make it?" Lilo asked Letho and Xukir.

"As long as part of him is across the line, he made it." Xukir responded. Lilo looked at the line, and sighed in relief.

"Good thing your ears are so long Stitch." She said. As it turned out, his ears were sticking up in front of him, and he was across by half an inch.

"Let's get him to that river." Letho said. Lilo picked up Stitch and half-dragged, half-carried him to the rushing water. Stitch stuck his head into the water, and started chugging it down. After a few moments, he took his head out and took a deep breath. He was about to go back in, but Letho grabbed a hold of him.

"Not too fast buddy: you'll make yourself sick. Take a minute, and then go back to drinking slowly." Stitch laid on his back for a minute, and then started drinking again. When he was done, he came out, and put his head in Lilo's waiting arms.

"I knew you could do it Stitch." She said, slowly stroking his head fur. "But you gave the rest of them quite a scare, especially in the last minute."

"Stitch always win." Stitch replied.

"Yeah, but it was a lot closer then usual this time."

"Meega tired Lilo."

Lilo smiled. "Then close your eyes and sleep. I won't let anyone even touch you." She picked him up and held him close to her. "Let's go back to Letho's."

"Just don't forget about tomorrow. 0900." Xukir said. Lilo and Letho nodded, and walked off.

"If you want I can carry him Lilo, I'm sure he's quite heavy." Lilo smiled as she heard Stitch growl lightly in protest to the 'heavy' comment.

"I'll be fine. He isn't heavy at all." She felt Stitch snuggle close to her, and then he fell asleep, snoring lightly.

Stitch didn't remember a thing about that day after the race. It turned out that he slept straight through until the next morning, where he went and got his final trial. As Xukir looked at it, he smiled. "I wouldn't worry much about this trial; it's the Trial of Strength. You have to throw a thirty-pound weight a distance of thirty feet, and carry a thousand pound weight for one hundred yards. Even in your current condition, I think that it will an easy task, am I right?" Stitch nodded. "See you here tomorrow at noon. I suggest you go home and rest now; I can tell you're still quite tired." Stitch went home, most of it carried by Lilo: he was still horribly weak from the day before. When they got back to Letho's he would have gladly gone back to bed, but Letho kept him up a little longer, making him drink a large quantity of blood and water. After forcing down a sizeable amount, he went back to his room and laid on the bed. Hoping to fall back asleep, he was disappointed again when Lilo came in.

"Stitch, I know you're tired, but this is important."

"Gaba?" He responded grumpily.

"The communicator buzzed last night: Jumba left a message, and I figured you'd want to hear it first, in case he told you stuff he only wanted you to know."

"How often does he do that?"

"Well, I don't know, but you sent the message alone, so I don't know if there was something… personal you might have asked."

"If it'll make you feel better, I'll listen to it first and then share it." Stitch said, sitting up and taking it from Lilo. She left the room, and Stitch played the message.

_It's good to hear that you two are doing fine. Everyone here is worried, especially Nani. I gave her your message, and she was surprisingly understandable. Pleakly took it… well, like Pleakly. I decided that in a few days I will go see this Seras of yours, and see if she truly is as smart as me, but I doubt it: I am evil genius, she is child. Anyway, I hope you are doing well in your tests, and I hope you are taking care of little girl as best you can, but I assume you are. I don't have much else for news here, but Gantu, 625, and 624 are joining CIA man in search for you. I got a personal call from 624 in fact. Wanted to see if I knew anything, and to play a little catch up. Turns out they were coming back soon, because 624 is pregnant! She wanted my help in delivering the kids, so she and 625 were coming back anyway when they got the call. Other then that, Cobra has roused all the experiments to look around for you. He has Finder constantly looking around for ways through the vampire-only entrances, and has two experiments posted near each entrance in all of what you call the New World. The formula that you asked about is, of course, highly experimental. It will change little girl into a genetic experiment similar to 624, but I can't be exactly sure how she will turn out. It could turn out many different ways, but I am sure that you two would not be caring if she was not the most beautiful being to walk the universe. I mentioned the serum because it was taken from my lab, and only 199 and little girl could have taken it, even though neither of them knows exactly what it is for. 199 swears not to have it, and I believe him. So that means little girl has it. If she is ever wishing to use it, it must be injected, unfortunately, directly into the heart: obviously, not the most comfortable thing ever. I know that your body does not work the exact same way anymore, but it should still work fine. I must get going now: I should be looking for ways to get past the little entrance issue for Cobra. Oh, and I am sorry: if I had known that you or little girl had been keeping journal, I would have kept it far from 199. I wish you the best of luck 626._

The message ended, and Stitch closed the communicator, everything swirling in his head. If this was true, that Lilo had the serum, then maybe… no, would she use it? Giving up her humanity for a guy like him? Then again, she already pretty much had, in coming with him this far. He decided that most of it, except for the last bit, Lilo could hear. He came back in the room and played the message for her. She listened to it intently, keeping absolutely quiet during the message. Unfortunately, Stitch was quite tired, and wasn't paying the most attention to the message.

_The formula you asked about is, of course, highly experimental._ Stitch jumped, realizing his lapse in concentration. _It will change…_he stopped the message; but Lilo was now too curious to let him stop.

"Let me hear the rest Stitch." She said.

"Naga. It… it… doesn't have anything to do with you."

"Stitch, I've been with you too long to not know when you're lying."

"So?"

Lilo sighed. "Stitch, I don't want you to lie to me: I want you to be able to trust me."

Stitch sighed, and played the rest of the message for Lilo. She listened to it, completely aghast at what she heard. After it ended, she was silent for several minutes" Stitch refused to fall asleep until they had talked this out.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I don't know what to think." Lilo said. "I mean, I always kind of hoped to be together… but I didn't think it was possible."

"Let's not worry about the serum now." Stitch said.

Lilo nodded after a moment. "Yeah, let's save the vampires, and then figure this thing out." She sat silently for a moment. "So Nosy read my diary?" Stitch nodded. "How much did you hear about?"

"A bit."

Lilo blushed. "If you had heard that butt comment in context…"

"What butt comment?" Stitch interrupted, highly interested.

"You mean, you didn't hear…" Her voice trailed off as Stitch shook his head. "Well, at one point I _might_ have written that I really liked your butt and fancy fur."

Stitch chuckled. "Remember back to the first night after you adopted me? At Nani's work, about what you told David?"

Lilo laughed. "Yeah, I told him that part from Nani's diary, but she liked his hair. Of course, he doesn't have fur at all _to_ like, so I can see the difference."

"You two are definitely sisters." Stitch said. "More then you like to admit some days."

Lilo nodded. "Well, you get some sleep Stitch: you have a big day tomorrow with your last trial. Oh, and when you send that message back, I'd like to be there."

Stitch nodded. "Anything for you."

Lilo nodded and briefly kissed his lips. "That's why I love you Stitch." As she walked out the door, she flipped the lights off, making it dark in the room.

She walked over to her things, and pulled the small vial out of the side pocket. She started toying with it, turning it over and over in her hands. "So this little thing decides when and if Stitch and I can actually get together, forever." She looked at the purple liquid, completely entranced by it. "I never knew such a small thing could hold so much power."

Letho in the next room was watching her with the vial and smiled. "You have more power then you know little one. Far more."

**Lower Caverns: Security Level Black Required**

Kiru paced slowly back and forth, her servant Tarn in front of her.

"Madam, perhaps you have made an error." Tarn said.

"I do not make errors Tarn." She said coldly to him.

Tarn took a small shuffle back. "Perhaps the artifact is not as good as the merchant said."

"The amulet is more helpful then even I had imagined."

"She's not even a born vampire, and there aren't any even close to her blood line: how could she have the ancient magic in her?"

Kiru stared at the amulet on the table. "That I do not know. With her help, I could gain supreme power, and crush the Vampeers into dust, bomb or no bomb."

"What makes you think she will help us?" Tarn asked. "Especially with Letho mentoring her, and Xukir watching out for her and her blue friend."

"Xukir watches out for her because he can feel the magic coming from her, and Letho is no fool: he can sense it too. It is only a matter of time before they have her seek out the Oracle to teach her how to seal that damn hole in the Pact of Ancients. If she does, then my plans will be all for nothing."

"So what do we do?"

"We wait. When we confront her, she may reject us: the magic in her will tell her to. If that happens, then I will need to take some hostages to… persuade her to our side"

"All of her living relatives are in Kauai, Hawaii. If possible, we might even catch her furry blue friend."

Kiru nodded. "That one holds the most sway over her decisions. He will be key in our attempts."


	19. Acquaintance

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

I would like to apologize to everyone for taking so long to get this chapter out. I have been having some issues with my grades, and have been unable to work on this for quite some time. Hopefully, now that that situation is remedied, I can start working on this more often.

Chapter 19: Acquaintance

The time for the final Trial had come, and Stitch was feeling good. He was sure that the thirty-pound weight would go at least a hundred yards, if not more. As for the thousand pounds, he could carry that for a year and still be fine, even with all the burns he had. Lilo was leaning her head on Stitch's shoulder, and he had his arms around her.

"After this, what's gonna happen?" Lilo asked.

"Well, Xukir is probably going to want to talk to us about the bomb some more, any leads he has, stuff we need… all that blitznak. If I remember correctly, we're getting on a plane for Northern Ireland as soon as we can. Hopefully it'll give us enough time to find Project Tamhewt before it does anything."

"You'd think that it would have done something by now." Lilo said. "It's been over a week since we found out, and nothing seems to have happened. Maybe he isn't hanging around Cobra at all."

"Well, we have to at least take a look." Stitch said. "And we can talk to Seras to see if it traveled along with Cobra on his chase for us." Xukir walked up to the conversing duo.

"It's almost time Stitch." He said. "Don't worry, this will be done before you know it." Stitch nodded, and stood up. He walked over to the thirty-pound weight, and looked at it.

"The final Trial for Stitch, the Trial of Strength, is about to begin. You must throw the weight thirty feet or more, and carry the thousand pound weight for a hundred yards to pass this Trial. You have one minute before the beginning." Stitch wasn't worried; in fact, he felt like doing it in his sleep, but he wasn't sure if he could it like that. He waited patiently for the minute to pass, and it finally did. "The Trial begins… NOW!" Stitch picked up the weight at his foot with one hand, and chucked it with all his might. He watched it sail for over two hundred yards, before losing interest and walked over to the thousand pound weight. He picked it up, and using his back to help him, carried it quickly across the hundred-yard range. When he got there, he set it on the ground with a large thud.

"Did I pass?" Stitch asked.

Xukir laughed. "With flying colors my furry blue friend. I've never seen anyone do that so well." When Lilo and Letho came over, Xukir looked at them. "Your flight to Ireland leaves the airport the day after tomorrow at midnight. Until then, you are free to do what you wish: you are now officially vampires." Xukir walked off, and Lilo hugged Stitch.

"It wasn't _that_ hard Lilo." Stitch said. "But you can keep hanging on me if you want."

"So what now?" Letho asked.

Stitch let go of Lilo. "Well, we have a day until we have to get going to Ireland. What do you guys want to do?"

"Do we have time to go look for Tamhewt?" Lilo asked.

Letho shrugged. "Maybe, if we can find out where Cobra is hanging around."

"That won't be easy." Stitch huffed. "He moves like a ghost, except he doesn't leave this cold wind behind him."

Letho nodded. "I've worked with him once or twice before, and I know how careful he is. We will have to watch our backs for him."

Lilo chuckled. "Like he could really sneak up on us, with the sensitive ears you and Stitch have."

"I'm not saying we won't hear him coming." Letho said. "I mean we have to watch for any traps he might set for us. I guarantee you it won't be easy to escape any trap he has."

"Well, we have to help him." Lilo said.

"We don't even know that he's in trouble." Letho argued.

"But he is, more then likely." Lilo shot back. "We have a history of this… this creation killing a lot of people, and I don't want to take that chance." She had decided creation, because she no longer the term monster should be applied to anything after she had met Stitch. The memory still made her feel warm inside.

Letho sighed. "Ok, ok. Let's call Seras and see what she has for us on a location of Cobra. Then we'll figure out a plan of some sort."

"I'll call." Stitch said, pulling out his videophone. He quickly put in the number, and a few moments later Stitch picked up.

"How's it going?" She asked. It looked like she hadn't slept for a few days.

"Almost as good as you look." Stitch replied.

"Been staying up through the day to get my computers back together." Seras said. "At least I'm not getting burned and run down."  
"Just finished the last trial: passed with flying colors." Stitch said.

"Cool. Did you call to brag, or did you have something you needed to ask for."

Stitch chuckled. "Yeah, we got a reason. We have a few days before we head out, and we were going to check in on Cobra and see if we could track down Tamhewt in time to help out Cobra."

"Huh, so you're running towards the one guy who wants you in his grip. Lovely plan there." Seras said as the computer keys clicked in the background. "Give me a minute to home in on his signal, and then I'll give you the location."

"So, did you find a way that Cobra could get in?" Lilo asked over Stitch's shoulder.

"Not yet, but I'm still getting all my computers together, so it'll take some more time." After a few moments, the computer beeped. "Ok. I tracked his signal to… Northern Illinois, a couple miles out of Chicago, a town called… Oswego. Kind of a daft place to be; what's over there?"

"You're the one with the computer." Stitch said. "Why don't you tell me?"

"It looks like it used to be mostly farm land. It's now quite 'modernized', but there are still a few farms here and there."

"Alright. Thanks for the help."

"I'll find us a plane." Letho said, taking out his phone.

"Stitch, could I talk privately with you for a moment?" Seras asked. Stitch glanced behind him over at Lilo. She gave him a little nod and walked off.

"What is it?" Stitch asked.

"Did she find out about the serum?"

Stitch nodded. "Yeah. I still don't think she should take it though. Giving up her humanity for me isn't a fair trade."

"What, you think she should give up more to spend eternity with you?"

Stitch snorted. "That's far too much to give up just for me."

Seras sighed. "Stitch, this is her choice. If she loves you enough that she's willing to give up what's left of her humanity to be with you, you should support her and be overjoyed."

"I just don't think I'm worth it."

"Stitch, shut up." Seras commanded, causing Stitch to close his mouth instantly. "You are more then worth it. If she doesn't see that, then she's blind. Leave it to her, and let her return your affection with as much as she has." The line disconnected, and Stitch sighed.

"I'm not worth all that." Stitch whispered. He put the phone away and turned around. "Ok, so what have we got?"

"Nothing leaving for O'Hare any time soon. We should find another mode of transportation. We should be able to rent a car when we get to the surface. However, we will have to turn our phones off; undoubtedly, Cobra will be tracing the signals."

Stitch nodded and turned his off. "Hope no one needs to talk to us for a day or two."

"If anything of serious importance pops up, there are other ways that they can contact me when needed." Letho said, doing the same with his phone. "If we get moving now, we can be there by five, and then we can drive straight through to the town. We rent a hotel, sleep the rest of the day away, and then finish tracking Cobra down. Any objections?" They both shook their heads. "All right, let's get going then."

**Cobra**

Cobra was getting tired of looking for ways into the underground caverns, but he had to keep looking: Lilo was too important to let go. He was right now in northern Illinois, inside the town of Aurora, looking for one of his… friends. It wouldn't be too hard to find him: he was either at work or in his room, like he always was.

The friend in question was a teenager, just over seventeen, who had accidentally stumbled across the aliens down in Hawaii. He had been observing the stars with his telescope, when he had witnessed the space battle following Gantu's capture of Jumba many years ago before the other experiments were activated. The boy had started calling people, and the CIA had dispatched Cobra to keep the aliens quiet. At first, Cobra had thought it would be easy to explain it away, but the kid was smart: he hadn't fallen for any of the mind games Cobra played with normal people. Cobra had finally given in and told him the truth, and the teen had agreed to keep quiet, for the sake of Stitch, who he hadn't even met yet. While he had been there, Cobra was slightly intrigued by the boy: he was a good drawer and writer but lacked self-confidence, he was extremely creative and intuitive, he could solve many puzzles and riddles, and he could do quite a bit of complex math in his head, something that had died out with his generation, especially when the graphing calculator was released.

Cobra had already called the teen's job, and they had said he wasn't working today, so he would be at home in his room. Cobra drove over there, checking his watch: almost three in the afternoon. He pulled up across the street and parked his car, turning it off. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"Hello?"

"It's Cobra."

A small whistle came from the other side. "Haven't heard from you for quite some time. What are you doing all the way up here?"

"I need some help Michael, and I think you're the only one who can."

"What do I need to bring?"

"Bring you phone, laptop, a few changes of clothes, and some cash."

"Be right there." The line disconnected, and a few moments later, Michael was walking out of the house with his stuff in tow. He was about five foot nine, dark blonde hair that went down to his collar and his eyebrows, and startling brilliant, lighting blue eyes. He was wearing his usual attire of a plain black t-shirt and blue jeans. He was also wearing his clip-on sunglasses over his normal glasses, as the sun was shining quite brightly. Michael opened the trunk, tossed his stuff inside, slammed it shut, and hopped into the front seat of the car.

"What did you tell your parents?" Cobra asked.

"That a friend of mine was having a sleep over for a few days. She let me go without a fuss, probably because she's busy painting right now. So what's the issue?"

"There is a lot I have to tell you about, and I'm not sure if you'll believe it."

"I can believe just about anything nowadays."

"Ok." As he started to drive, Cobra told him what he had to: the existence of vampires, their current state of danger, the relationship of Lilo and Stitch, what had transpired since they had gone missing, and anything else pertaining to the case that was of interest. Michael sat silently for a few minutes after he finished.

"So let me get this straight: the vampires were about to be wiped out, so this guy Letho made Lilo and Stitch vampires to save them. You want them back because everyone back on Hawaii is worried about them, and if they don't get back soon, the Council Woman will be overturned by the council and the Galactic Senate will use their 'disappearance' as an excuse to destroy the other experiments. You're also worried that the other experiments might see it in the wrong light, and think Lilo and Stitch were taken against their will, and they will set out after them. First, it'll start a war between the vampires and experiments, possibly allying the experiments with the vampeers, and second, the experiments moving in such large group could cause them to be found out by the general population, thereby causing a planet wide panic."

Cobra nodded. "I told you it was a little hard to believe."

"I admit, I thought it was something a little… smaller then that." Michael said slowly.

"I assumed you would be skeptical, so I'm bringing you to someone who can verify my story." As he finished talking, he turned onto a small side road, similar to a long driveway.

"So you're taking me to a farm?"

"A friend of yours." Cobra said.

"The only person I know who lives on a farm is my friend Matt." A pause. "What does Matt have to do in this?"

"I'll let him talk to you about that." Cobra said. When they pulled up, Matt waved to them from the door.

"Come on in guys." Matt called. Making sure the car was locked, the duo from the car walked in, and Matt closed the door behind him. "Cobra called ahead Mike, so I knew you were coming."

"Cobra said you had something to tell me."

Matt nodded. "There is something about me that I've never told you."

"Which is?"

"I'm a vampire."

Cobra looked over at Michael, as his signature grin came on his face. More of a half grin, the left side of his mouth moved into a smile, while the right side stayed down. He had seen this smile several times, each time was different: his eyes gave the smile a different reaction, from happiness to surprise, from understanding to diabolical. This time, it showed expectation and great intrigue.

"Tell me everything."


	20. Conflicting Needs

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Ok, so the story on this chapter and it doing a Houdini is the fact that the damn site deleted it for no reason at all. I talked to the people in charge, but there wasn't anything they could do. So, I had to redo the last half, give or take, of this chapter. So if it's a little different, sorry. However, it does have all the necessary parts to keep things going smoothly. Sorry, and here is chapter 20.2, I guess you could call it.

Chapter 20: Conflicting Needs

"Time to get up guys." Letho said.

Lilo groaned. "Just a few more minutes." She muttered.

"Ih. Few more minutes." Stitch agreed.

Letho sighed. "The sooner you get up, the sooner we can get back to our job, and away from Cobra." After one more moan of complaint, Lilo sat up and yawned, Stitch following a moment later.

They had stopped at a hotel a couple miles out of Oswego. As usual, there were only two beds in the room, so Letho slept on the floor, insisting Lilo and Stitch each take a bed; he said he was used to it. Neither of them complained, so they had left it at that. As they started to get ready, Letho continued talking.

"I called Seras a little while ago to get an exact location. He's somewhere in… Plainfield, close to Oswego; appears to be some sort of farm."

"What's he doing at a farm?" Stitch asked as he slipped into a pair of black shorts. "Doesn't make sense to me at all."

Letho shrugged. "I'm sure that there's some reason for it, though we may not know what it is."

Lilo nodded. "Who knows what goes through Cobra's mind." She stretched. "Are we heading out?"

Letho nodded. "It shouldn't take us more then half an hour to get up to where he is, as long as he hasn't moved too much. Hopefully we'll find Tamhewt around there, otherwise we may have to leave him alone and head off."

Stitch yawned lightly. "Well, let's get going then." They threw on a change of clothes, and then signed out of their room. Jumping into the car they had rented, they headed out.

"So, how do we find Tamhewt when we finally get there? I don't remember ever seeing a picture of him, or even a description of what he looks like."

Stitch shrugged. "Well, all I know is that he travels around in the cargo hold as a pet or animal."

Letho nodded. "There isn't much we know. However, we will do what we can to protect Cobra. Just remember that, after we save him, we have to leave _immediately_, or he may have a way to catch you two up his sleeve." They drove for a few minutes in silence, before Lilo asked a question.

"So, there are vampires and werewolves: are there other… people like you?"

Letho nodded. "A few. Most creatures are myths, created by us and other humans; some were made out of sheer imagination, others to keep talk of our kind on the low."

"What are they?" Lilo asked.

Letho thought for a moment. "Honestly, most of them have been wiped out. There were medusas, gorgons, harpies, minotaurs, and there was even rumor of a few basilisks. There even used to be dragons."

"Dragons?" Lilo asked, excited. "There're dragons?"

Letho shook his head. "There used to be. Magnificent creatures they were: they were many during the early Middle Ages. Huge wings, fiery breath, larger then houses… magnificent."

"What happened to them?"  
Letho shrugged. "Who knows? Some say that they were eventually all killed or died out. Some believe that they used their limited magic to escape to a different world, far away from ours. A few actually believe that, many years ago, Archmage Rosa used the last of his magic to hide the last few dragons, along with the Elementals."

Lilo looked over at him. "Rosa? Archmage? Elementals?"

Letho sighed. "Sorry, I forgot you didn't know too much about this." He glanced out the window. "I think I have adequate time to explain this to you. Let's start with archmages."

"In our society, there are a select few that have the power to control certain elements. None exist today that we know of, but they were powerful men and women: they are the ones who made the laws we abide by today. Some of them, like Rosa, were so powerful and important in throughout their life, that they were given the title of Archmage. They died out a long time ago, and none have been found since. Rosa was of special importance to us: he was the only Archmage to ever dedicate himself to the welfare of the other creatures like us. He came around far too late to save most of them, however. Throughout his life, he studied, learned, and became the most powerful Archmage ever. He is the one who kept the vampeers and us together. He is most remembered for protecting the Elementals."

"The Elementals are four… lords, I guess you could call them. They each have enormous, almost total control, over their respective elements: fire, air, water, and earth. They used to keep the balance, each being able to override the other if they got too out of hand. But, what no one realized is that they were connected to a tower of great power. Within their elemental planes was a column… no, more a pillar of elemental energy, which could be used to bring this tower, the Xyno Tower, into our world. The tower holds complete control over all the elements, but also the dead. About a millennia ago, someone sought to force the elementals to activate their pillars, and bring the tower under their control. The name of the mage was never revealed, but it speaks of one who was high in our order. Rosa used all of his magic to seal the Elementals away from where anyone but the most powerful of Archmages could free them. He then transferred what was left of his life into what we call the Oracle, which was used to teach those of magic how to use it. I believe it was his hope that, one day, a powerful mage would arise, free the Elementals, and somehow destroy the Xyno Tower once and for all."

Lilo whistled. "That's awesome. So, who are the Archmages now?"

Letho shook his head. "There aren't any. There is only one who can use any magic, and she can barely use it. Her name is Kiru, one of the higher vampires in authority. She has tried to broaden her ability to use magic, but has failed thus far. Xukir and I think we may have found a newly turned vampire that has as much, if not more, magic potential then Rosa himself."

"Who is it?" Stitch asked.

"Later: we're here." Up ahead, still a good two-minute walk away, they saw a house, with light streaming out of some of the windows.

"Why aren't we closer?" Lilo asked as Letho turned off the car.

"He might spot us, and then we'd have issues." Letho said. He turned to the other two. "So, what exactly are we going to do here? We need a plan of action."

Stitch thought for a moment. "Well, we want to warn Cobra about Tamhewt. So, let's look around here first and see if Tamhewt's around: he _has_ been following Cobra around a lot lately. If he isn't around, we'll try and find a way to drop a word to Cobra, while still being able to get out quickly."

Letho nodded. "Well, let's get going then." They got out of the car, and Letho locked the doors. He thought for a moment about leaving them unlocked, in case they had to leave quickly, but there was always the chance that some thief would end up stealing it when they needed it most. "Did Seras give us a view of the area?"

Stitch nodded. "I memorized it right after she sent it, so I didn't have to have my communicator on for too long. There are only a few places that anything could hide, so it shouldn't take too long to search those. After that, we can figure something out for Cobra."

They started searching around, taking care not to get too close to the house that someone looking out the window might see them. They quickly scrapped most of the places, save the barn. They had intentionally saved that for last, as it was the most likely place for someone to hide in: fairly large, two levels, and a multitude of places for someone to hide. As they stood outside the barn door, Lilo turned to Stitch.

"Do either of you know _exactly_ what the thing we're looking for looks like?"

Stitch shook his head. "That probably would have been a good thing to find out. Too bad there was never a picture of this thing."

"Well, do you smell anything… out of place?" Letho asked. "Something that doesn't belong?" Letho asked.

Stitch sniffed a bit, and then nodded. "Yeah. I can't really explain it, but it definitely doesn't belong. We should be careful." Lilo slowly opened the barn door, taking care to stay out of the way in case something came out. Once it was open enough, they slipped inside, and shut the door behind them, so that it would be obvious if someone were to leave. "Let's get looking." Stitch said. As he started tracking the source of the odd smell, Letho and Lilo started searching around the barn.

"Be careful Stitch: I don't want you to get hurt." Lilo called up to him.

"Don't worry: I know what I'm doing." Stitch called back. Just as he finished speaking, some of the hay bales fell over, and something dove on top of Stitch. Crying out in alarm, he was slammed into the ground, and they both went through the second floorboards and crashed to the ground. As the dust and hay settled to the ground, Lilo started to run over there to help him.

"Stay back!" Letho yelled at her, making his way toward the mass of debris on the floor. After digging through it for a moment, he pulled out Stitch, who was coughing up dust, and a stunned black form. Tossing the thing to Stitch, he motioned to Lilo. "Let's get out of here."

Stitch shook his head. "Cobra coming!" He said, pointing at the barn door.

Letho cursed loudly. "Go out the roof. I'll stall him until you get to the car, and then I'll make a break for it. Get the car started, and buckle in so that I can hop in and go." Stitch and Lilo nodded, disappearing out the back end of the barn, just as the front door slid open.

"Letho, how nice to see you." Cobra said. "I assume that Lilo and Stitch are nearby as well; I'd like to talk with them."

"They're preoccupied at the moment." Letho replied, leaning against the back wall. "However, if you'd like me to give them a message, I'm sure I can manage to deliver it to them quite quickly."

"Letho, you don't understand how important they are in keeping this planet in one piece." Cobra said. "They need to come with me."

Letho snorted. "And you don't understand how she's probably the last hope _we_ have to survive. That's why she's with me."

Cobra sighed. "Letho, surely we can work this out. Now, Lilo has a very important call she needs to make. After that, I'm sure that we could talk about her going back with you."

Letho rolled his eyes. "There's no way in hell I'm agreeing to that. The moment I turn my back, you're all going to be gone, and me and my friends are going to be left out to die. Sorry, but I can't help you." He clapped his hands together. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment I need to schedule and my friends to save. Until next time, I'll drop you a line sometime." He kicked a hole in the back of the barn, and was gone in an instant.

Cobra sighed heavily, and walked back to the house. "Mike, grab your stuff and let's get going: we have to go see Vexen."

When Cobra turned his back, Matt slapped Mike on the back. "Dude! He totally has _the_ hottest daughter, Vexen does. You should totally get to know her. She's hot, she's smart, and I'm sure she'd love to meet you."

Mike chuckled: Matt was always trying to get him hooked up with women. It hadn't worked so far, but Matt never stopped trying. "We'll see: maybe Cobra will only be there for a day or something."

Matt shrugged. "Whatever." They shook hands. "See you around man."

**Letho**

Letho jumped into the car, which was already started up, strapped his seatbelt in, and stepped on the gas.

"Is everything ok?" Lilo asked, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to him.

Letho nodded. "I got out without a physical confrontation, if that's what you mean. However, I believe that I seriously underestimated his resolve to get you two back to your family."

Lilo yawned. "Well, he'll have a hard time keeping up with us, CIA agent or not."

Letho nodded. "You should get some sleep Lilo: once we get back to the hotel, I don't know how long we'll be there before heading out." Lilo nodded and closed her eyes, falling asleep in a moment.


	21. Tamhewt

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Sorry for taking half of forever (literally), but I am having some serious writers block issues with the story, and I'm doing my best to wade through it. Please be patient, but feel free to PM me and scream at me for it. Although, I would kindly ask that you take into account my poor AP Physics grade before you do.

Chapter 21: Tamhewt

When Lilo woke up about two hours later to find herself back in the hotel, lying on one of the beds. Yawning quietly, she sat up and looked around for the others: Letho was nowhere to be seen, Stitch was gazing out the window, and someone was tied to a chair. As she looked again, she realized it was Tamhewt; it was the first time she had gotten a good look at him.

From what she could tell, Tamhewt looked like a giant otter. Standing about a head taller then Stitch, he was covered from the tip of his thick, heavy tail to the top of his head in a sleek, midnight-black fur. He had razor sharp teeth, and a short snout. Looking around under the laser-cuffs that bound him, she saw that he had two four-fingered paws with claws that were half an inch long. He appeared to be reasonably fit, and the curve of his muscles showed slightly through his fur. Altogether, she had to admit he looked kind of sexy; not as good as Stitch, but still pretty handsome.

"Where's Letho?" She asked.

Stitch turned around. "He went outside to make a phone call. You sleep well?"

Lilo nodded. "It was fine. I'm surprised that he's still out." Lilo said, pointing to Tamhewt.

Stitch hopped down from his perch. "From what I can tell, his skeletal structure isn't nearly as strong as mine. When the rest of that crap and I fell on top of his head, it gave him one hell of a headache and knocked him out cold; he's got a pretty nasty bump on the back of his head to prove it."

Lilo looked at him. "I see you have a nice bump on _your_ head, also." Stitch ran his hand over it.

"It still stings a bit." He said.

"Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Stitch smiled. "If that's the case, I think that fall hurt me in a few more spots."  
"Really?" Lilo said. "Where."

Stitch put his arm around her. "Everywhere."

Lilo sighed, a smile playing across her lips. "Well, that would take a long time to kiss. I guess I'll just have to give you a bath to help you."

Stitch chuckled nervously. "Um… on second thought, everything but my head is ok."

"You sure? There's a bathtub right over there, and I have some soap and a brush." Lilo said. The door to their room opened, and Letho walked in.

"I have some friends that are going to come and pick him up later right before we have to head out for our plane." He said, putting his phone away.

Lilo looked up at him. "Don't we have a long way to drive to get back?"

Letho nodded. "Yes, so we'll be leaving in a couple hours."

"But the sun will be out."

Letho nodded. "My friends will also be bringing a sufficiently tinted car to allow us to drive through the day." He lay down on the bed, tossing his boots and cloak to one side. "If that… _thing_ wakes up, then wake me up. Otherwise, I need some sleep." In a few moments, he was sound asleep.

"Let's call Jumba." Lilo suggested. They had to stay in the hotel room, so they moved to the far corner of the room and turned on the communicator. Surprisingly, even though it was the middle of the night, Jumba answered.

"Little girl! 626! I is glad to finally be talking to you again!" Jumba said joyfully.

"Hey Jumba." Stitch said. "Where are you?"

"Am about to be leaving for Seras' house. CIA man called earlier, and is very annoyed that you narrowly escaped him. He is taking someone with him down to see Seras as well, so I will be hitching ride with them."

Lilo sighed. "Have you heard from the Council Woman yet?"

Jumba nodded. "Gantu informed her of situation, and she is attempting to figure out course of action. Seems that other members of council are getting slightly perturbed that you have not reported in on experiments yet. Council Woman is trying to smooth things out, but is getting more and more difficult. By sounds of it."

"How's Nani holding up?"

Jumba shrugged. "Better then I would have thought. She seems to have agreed with your decision… mostly. She has been depressed, but she is trying to hold up. The experiments are all very worried about you. They think you abandoned them."

"WHY WOULD I DO THAT!!" Lilo said in a loud whisper.

"I told them story and showed them most of 626's transmission; they are unhappy, but they seem to be ok with it, though they all miss you."

Stitch took the communicator. "Why is Cobra after us so much? I've never seen him so… obsessed."

Jumba sighed. "Hard to explain. Part of it is because he worked hard to save this planet once, and now with you not with the experiments, it could give the Council reason to destroy planet."

"So he's afraid we're destroying all his work to save Earth." Stitch said. "But there's got to be more to it then that."

Jumba shrugged. "I know that there is personal connection between them, but any files about it were deleted long ago." He looked at his watch. "I have to be going now, but I will be at Seras' by tomorrow, and we can talk again then." He hung up, and Stitch turned off the communicator.

"So what now?" Lilo asked. "We have a few hours to kill." Off in the corner, Tamhewt moaned and began to stir.

"Let's talk to our guest." Stitch said. "Let's figure out exactly what he was up to." When he finally finished coming around, he instantly started attempting to break out of the ropes that held him.

"Cool it." Stitch said. "We don't want to hurt you."

"Untie me and let's see who hurts who." He growled. However, he did quit squirming. "Who are you guys?"

"Long story." Lilo said. "But I'm Lilo, he's Stitch, and the guy sleeping on the bed is Letho. _We_ want to know what you were doing following Cobra."

"If you know I was following Cobra, then you must have some idea why I was doing it." Tamhewt said. Lilo had the feeling it was going to be a pain getting a straight answer from him.

"We have a theory, but we want to know the truth of it all." Stitch said.

Tamhewt looked around the room. "I've been meeting his… _colleagues_ over the past few years and dealing with them."

"You killed them."

"I merely helped them move from this world to the next." He responded.

Lilo glanced at Stitch. "And Cobra was next in line."

Tamhewt nodded. "Next and last; took some time to get through the line without arousing too much suspicion. I did a pretty good job about it, too."

"Cobra didn't even see you coming." Lilo said.

"What I want to know is how _you_ did. I was pretty meticulous about covering my tracks and making most of the stuff look like an accident."

Stitch shrugged. "Mostly luck. Seras and I were talking about one of her experiments, which she based off of your original programming."

Tamhewt looked at him. "You mean the perfect assassin."

Stitch nodded. "Exactly. She had tried tracking you after you escaped from the CIA facility in Chicago, but she lost you after DC."

Tamhewt nodded. "So I actually did a decent job then." He looked at Stitch. "You another one of their creations? Sent out to bring me back?"

"No." Stitch said shaking his head. "I am a genetic experiment, but I'm from… a completely different galaxy."

"You're an alien?"

"Yep. And there's over six hundred others sitting down in Kauai."

Tamhewt whistled. "That's a lot of alien experiments."

Lilo sat down in a chair across from Tamhewt and looked at him. "So you were going to kill Cobra?"

"It is what I'm programmed to do." He answered.

"And yet they tortured you simply because you _wouldn't_ kill."

"All they had to do was leave me alone, but they decided to torture me instead to get me to do what they wanted."

"How long were they doing it?"

"Torturing me? For a few years; I've even got a few scars left over from it if you want to see them later. I'd show them off now, but I'm a little tied up at the moment."

"They were torturing you because you wouldn't kill, and yet, after you escaped, you started killing."

He sighed. "After what they did to me, I decide to show them exactly what they had made. It was the only way to make sure that they wouldn't try it again anytime soon. Cobra was the last one in that line."

Lilo looked down at her feet. "If you had done your research, you would have seen that he was kicked off your project for trying to break you out."

Tamhewt looked at Stitch. "Is that right?" Stitch nodded. He thought for a moment. "I guess… maybe he's ok after all."

Lilo looked up at him. "So where are you going to go now? Did you actually make any plans for after you were done?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah. I was going to go steal a fighter jet and fly into a mountain."

"I'm being serious; what were you going to do?"

He looked away. "I'm being serious as well." He looked back. "See, I like to be around people a lot. Kind of weird for an assassin, but that's just how I am. I hate being alone, and with my… appearance, I'm going to be a complete outcast, and I don't want that. So, I decided that after my little revenge trip, I was going to go get rid of myself. Also, I figured that the CIA was going to tail me everywhere I went when they finally figured out that I was still alive, and I really didn't want to live on the run forever."

"Well, maybe if you're good, we could get you down to Kauai: you'd blend in with all of Stitch's cousins."

"Really?"

Lilo glanced back at Letho. "I'm sure I could manage that. What's one more genetic creation?" She yawned. "I think I'm going to go back to bed." Stitch nodded his agreement, and pulled two of the pillows to the floor. He glanced back at Tamhewt.

"Don't worry." Tamhewt told him. "I'm not going anywhere."

**Five Hours Later**

Stitch yawned and opened his eyes slowly against the sunlight that was sneaking in-between the blinds on the window. Sitting up, he noted that the other two were still asleep, and Tamhewt… _was gone?_ Blinking twice, he looked again, and the chair was still empty with the ropes sitting broken on the floor. He groaned, and decided to wake up Lilo first before telling Letho about it.

"Um… Lilo?" He gently shook her.

"Yeah?" She yawned, not opening her eyes.

"Tamhewt's gone."

"That's nice." She whispered. A moment later, she shot up, suddenly wide awake. "He's gone!"

Stitch nodded and pointed at the chair where he had sat. "What're we going to do?"

"We'll have to go out and find him if we can." Letho spoke from the other bed, sitting up. "We don't have much time before we have to go, but we'll do what we can."

"We'll go now." Lilo said, pointing to herself and Stitch. "You can start after you finish waking up." She jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom to change clothes.

"And I thought he was good." Lilo said through the door. An image of her without her muumuu on flashed through Stitch's head, and he immediately smacked himself for it; he shouldn't be thinking about her like that.

"I thought he was good too." Stitch replied, smacking himself once more. The door opened after another moment and Lilo stepped out in her green and white muumuu.

"Well, let's go." She opened the hotel door. "We need to find ourselves a creep." She turned to go out the door, but was unable to due to the fact that someone was already standing there.

The someone in question was carrying a box and had a strawberry donut in his teeth. Taking it out with his free hand, he looked between them. "Something wrong?" Tamhewt asked.

"We thought you had run off." Letho called from the bathroom, which he had occupied after Lilo had left.

Tamhewt walked in and closed the door behind him. "I got hungry, and decided to make a breakfast run. Figured you guys could use the sleep, so I didn't wake any of you up. Of course, with the way that guy snores" he pointed at the bathroom "I doubt any of you could have heard me attempt to wake you."

"Very funny." Letho called. "I'm still not sure what we're doing with you when we have to go."

"You can't let me go merrily on my way?" Tamhewt asked, flopping down on the bed.

"Go where?" Lilo asked. "Last I heard, you were going to fly into a mountain."

"I believe a change of destination is called for now." Tamhewt said. "I heard Kauai was nice this time of year."

"I'd hate to tell you," Letho said, coming out of the bathroom, "but I'm still not entirely convinced that you're intentions are good. When I get that car from my friends in a few minutes, then we're going to send you back with them until I'm sure you're not going to kill anyone."

"Can he get in if he isn't a vampire?" Stitch asked.

Letho nodded. "There are one or two entrances that are not vampire-only that he can be taken through, and it won't be too much of a delay. Besides: the others will want to have a look at him and see how he ticks."  
Tamhewt looked over at him, propping himself on his elbows. "I'd love it if you wouldn't talk about me like I wasn't here."

"It's nothing personal." Lilo assured him. "I think." A knock sounded on the door, and Letho glanced out the window.

"It's them." He said. Opening the door, there was a large woman dressed in a large black cloak. She was about medium build, almost six feet tall. Her pitch black hair almost touched the ground, and her emerald eyes were constantly moving. She had quite a bit of makeup on, and she almost looked like a normal human. Next to her stood a man dressed in a blue cloak. His hair touched the collar of his cloak, and his sapphire eyes were fixed on his master.

"Wow." Tamhewt said, looking at the heavily make-upped face of the woman. "I didn't know the freak show was in town this week."

"Excuse me?" The woman asked.

Tamhewt stood up. "Sorry, but I guess you haven't heard that Halloween is still a few months away, or you wouldn't have put that hideous mask on."

Letho sighed. "Enough Tamhewt." He turned to the Lilo and Stitch. "Guys, this is Kiru and her servant, Tarn." He turned to the others. "This is Lilo and Stitch, whom you've no doubt already heard about."

Lilo looked Kiru up and down. Apart from the mountain of make-up she had on her, she looked fine. However, somewhere deep down, she had this feeling of loathing and hatred for the woman. Pushing it aside, she shuffled a little closer to Stitch.

"Letho." Kiru said. "We have the car waiting out front for you."

Letho nodded. "And you will be taking Tamhewt with you."

"We need a word in private." Kiru continued. "Without any ears around."

Letho nodded. "You guys go out to the car, Tamhewt wait with them, and I'll be there in a minute or two."

Walking out to the car, Lilo was glad that the sun was behind a cloud at the moment; it hurt just walking in a few of the rays. They jumped in the car and closed it behind them, while Tamhewt stood outside. Lilo cracked the window open, and Tamhewt looked inside.

"They're talking about you two." He said.

"Really? What are they saying?" Lilo asked.

He shushed her. "I'll summarize in a sec." After waiting a few minutes in silence, he turned back to them. "Ok, so Kiru said something about Xukir claiming Lilo had the potential to be able to use magic, and that she should be kept in her company. Letho said that he trusts her about as long as he can stay in the sunlight; while he agrees that you have a high potential to use magic, he says he'll never let her train you. Other then that, it's mostly the 'uh-huh' and 'nuh-uh' kid stuff." Letho came up behind him.

"Time to go. Tamhewt, we'll see you when we get back to the Caverns." He slipped into the driver seat. "It should only take a few days."  
Tamhewt nodded. "I have a feeling I'm going to hate that woman." He said, walking away. As they began to drive Lilo looked out the window at his retreating form.

"So do I." She said in a whisper: a whisper that did not go unheard by Stitch or Letho.


End file.
